Last week, the University of Virginia brought together political insiders, top scholars and students to discuss aspects of the U.S. presidency. Speakers at the event included former White House officials and experts, such as President Bill Clinton and Andrew Card, chief of staff for President George W. Bush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a panelist along with CBS\u2019s John Dickerson and former Obama deputy White House chief of staff Mona Sutphen, I participated in one of the working sessions at the three-day Presidential Ideas Festival: Democracy in Dialogue. I offered my take on how to change the presidency to make government more effective. Not just the individual, but the office as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The major points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A charismatic\npresident is not enough.<\/strong> Our country has changed since George Washington\u2019s\nday. Government is more complex, and we have not adjusted our view of the\npresidency to align with the power the office has in today\u2019s society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to understand that the president should use the full\ncapability of the government to solve our nation\u2019s challenges. A charismatic\nindividual alone cannot address all the problems in our complicated world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Charisma enables a leader to communicate effectively with\nthe public, but it\u2019s not the only trait we should prioritize. The American\npeople and voters need to focus on leadership skills and the ability to\naccomplish goals, choose key advisors and manage a large team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to reduce the number of political appointees as well as the number of them that require Senate confirmation. <\/strong>Each administration appoints roughly 4,000 individuals to political positions throughout the government, with around 1,200 of those requiring Senate confirmation. Under the Trump administration, many of these positions remain unfilled<\/a> with the president more than halfway through his term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2012, Congress passed legislation to reduce the number of Senate-confirmed political appointees. We need Congress to take legislative action to further reduce the number of appointees requiring Senate confirmation. If the Senate focused on a smaller number of critical positions, we\u2019d have better oversight and fewer leadership gaps, which are debilitating for the effective functioning of our government. The overall number of political appointees also ought to be trimmed substantially, enabling a merit-based and career workforce to better serve the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n