The subordination of partisan to executive responsibility was reaffirmed in the 2004
election campaign. Even more than in previous on-year election campaigns, 2004 was dominated
by the presidential race, with the parties, interest groups, and the public devoting even more
attention than usual to the contest (Magelby, Monson, and Patterson 2005:4). Although the Bush
campaign’s emphasis on leadership was skillfully tied to values of national security and
traditional values that appealed to Republican partisans, the centrality of presidential leadership
tended to emphasize loyalty to Bush rather than a collective party organization with a past and a
future. As Matthew Dowd put it, “Leadership is a window into the soul – people want someone
they can count on in tough times, and Bush filled this paternalistic role” (Dowd Interview, July
20, 2005). The celebration of Bush’s guardianship raised questions about the sustainability of
the parties’ grassroots organizations and the high level of public engagement beyond the 2004
election. The success of the remarkable grass roots effort in Ohio, a local Bush-Cheney official
insisted, was due in large part to the “volunteers’ admiration for and loyalty to George W. Bush.”
Significantly, the Bush-Cheney campaign relied on frequent presidential visits, during which he
met with the most effective volunteers, as a method of “firing up” the grass roots organization
(Klinger interview). Indeed, as Dowd acknowledged, “both parties’ organizing force has focused
on President Bush—the Republicans in defense of his leadership; the Democrats in opposition—
hostility—to it. After the election, both parties will be challenged to sustain a collective
commitment independently of their devotion to or hatred of Bush” (Interview with Matthew
Dowd, July 26, 2004).
Moreover, although the 2004 election campaign aroused intense partisan activity and, in
comparison with recent previous elections, the rapt attention of the American people, the contest,
like the 2002 midterm congressional campaign before it, was not so much about Republican or
Democratic principles as whether the president or his challenger, Senator Kerry, was best suited
59
Convention