Q: That’s really interesting, because even Democrats we’ve talked to about the campaign have said that one of the best things going for President Bush was people would say, “Well, I may not agree with him, but I know where he stands.”
SPELLINGS: Yeah.
Q: And almost always, they’re thinking in terms of national [00:25:00] security issues, but it sounds like, you think education ought to be part of that, knowing —
SPELLINGS: Absolutely. Absolutely, and I think, you know, what you know about — what you see in President Bush, whether you know him or just see him on TV is, he’s a person of principle. As you say, you might not agree with him, but you know, you know, that he’s thought about it, why he thinks it, and what that’s anchored in in his, you know, philosophy, and in his world view, in his principles.
Q: What’s it like being in the White House in an election year like 2004 when it’s clear it’s going to be a closely fought contest? How does being there during the election itself affect the work you’re doing, and your other activities?
SPELLINGS: Well — and you know, this is human nature, and this is true in any election. I mean, there’s always, you know, an anxiety — a low-grade anxiety of, you know, what might erupt from [00:26:00] God knows where. And you know, when you’re senior level in the US government with, you know, tens — hundreds of thousands of, you know, people working, and multitudes of agencies doing a wide variety of things, you know, anything can happen any day, and you know, I could tell my vaccine story, but who would have predicted that, you know, most of the vaccine suppliers would go offline in the midst of a flu epidemic? You know, that’s just not a good thing to have happen under any circumstance, and certainly when you’re standing for, you know, weeks before, days before you’re standing for a national election completely beyond your control, but not beyond your control in terms of what you could do as far as oversight, and monitoring, and staying on top of.
But, so you’re afraid of what lies beneath the surface, and what might erupt from, you know, the most mundane things to, you know dramatic, horrible horrible. [00:27:00] And secondly, you know, I think you’re also trying to — you know, at the top line, think about what have we done, and what are we going to do next, and how do these things build upon each other? So in education’s example, we had, you know, started working on, obviously standards and assessments, but we wanted to talk more abut how are we going to get the right kind of people into our schools? We — you know, part of the No Child Left Behind law, frankly a part that George Miller was a strong supporter and urger of was the highly-qualified teacher idea, that we cannot, you know, close the achievement gap without excellent people teaching our kids. And we learned in the early implementational days that that wasn’t the case, and they were going to have to do some things around, you know, better deployment of capital, and urging people, particularly in the STEM fields, to come into our classrooms that, you know, might not be fully certified teachers. So we talked about a program called, you know, Adjunct [00:28:00] Teacher Corps, just like in higher education, where you can’t run, you know, any community college in this country without, you know, a strong core of adjunct professionals and academics, that we ought to embrace notions like that in our schools. So, you know, what’s the next chapter of a policy, as it develops.
Q: President Bush didn’t have a primary opponent the way his father did in ’92.
SPELLINGS: Right.
Q: But, I wonder, looking at the convention, was there any liaison between your office and the platform committee, for example?
SPELLINGS: Well, one of — a woman who had worked for me at the White House who had left the White House, who ran the healthcare portfolio, was hired by — I believe it was either — I think it was Senator [Bill] Frist that ran the platform committee that year, if I’m not mistaken. But someone who had worked for me at the White House, was the staffer — obviously she wasn’t employed by the [00:29:00] US government at this point, but she had been, you know, a key person — healthcare person, actually, in the White House. And she went off to manage and run the platform, somebody who could pick up the phone and call us if need be, ask a question, somebody we knew and trusted, you know, etc. She had been on the Hill prior to that. Very able person.
Q: How about during the campaign? Did you have to maintain a sort of strict separation between working for the White House and therefore not being involved in the re-elect, or were you able to do some things to help the re-elect?
SPELLINGS: You know, we — I do remember, and of course I’m not going to remember every bit of the protocol, you know, sitting here today many years later, but you know, we had staff trainings around how we — how and when and whether we could interface with the campaign on particular things. More often than not, they called us than the other way around, so, you know, if they needed a question answered, and a media response or something and [00:30:00] we were the holders of that factual answer, we certainly provided it, and everything was kosher. We were very mindful of that. That’s the last thing you want to have happen, and you know, we were — as to your point, we didn’t have a primary appointment but, you know, it was a well-resourced operation, highly professional, great people, but you know, we sort of waited to be called on for answers.
But likewise, what was in our bailiwick was to think, what have we done to capture the accomplishments, as any, you know, good management person would do, and to think about, if we’re going to be here another four years, what will we do as a matter of policy? And so the policy development itself was done in the White House.
Q: And during the debates, for example, were you involved in helping prepare President Bush for the debates at all?
SPELLINGS: I do remember going to Arizona, and because, as I recall — I mean, again, this is all distant memory, but that was the [00:31:00] debate where domestic issues were to be discussed. And so, you know, I must have — needed to be some sort of resource in that regard, and I remember, you know, feeling that it hadn’t gotten — of course I always feel this way, Mike, but that it hadn’t gotten its just due, but — and I remember seeing President Bush backstage with Condi Rice, you know, as we were entering the hall, or — you know, I used to have a picture of that somewhere around, but yeah.
Q: One of the sort of standard criticisms of the Bush 41 reelect campaign was that the White House operation and the campaign operation were such separate worlds, that the campaign people found it very hard to do their job. Did you see any — do you have any sense in the Bush 43 reelect that they were aware of that, and had thought about how to keep that from becoming a problem?
SPELLINGS: Yeah, I mean [00:32:00] you’ve heard me tell my story about the person who went off to run the platform committee with someone we knew and had had experience with, and likewise, there was sort of a mirror message of the domestic policy, you know, apparatus, not fully, you know, complete as you would be in the US government, but someone from my staff had gone — had left the government, and you know, was gone for good. But he was, you know, the domestic policy chair, if you will, of the campaign, someone who had been on my staff, had that level of knowledge, and so forth, and, you know. So, it was more, you know, who was there, as opposed to, you know, how much we were involved. They sort of — they had been party to the conversations, and you know, just knew it.