John Kerry's decision making Today's

John Kerry's decision making

Today's New York Times had a story by Adam Nagourney and Jodi Wilgoren
on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's approach to making decisions: "Kerry as the Boss: Always More Questions"

Nagourney and Wilgoren describe Kerry's aggressive questioning as he tries to gather information and alternative opinions:

"Mr. Kerry is a meticulous, deliberative decision maker, always demanding more information, calling around for advice, reading another document — acting, in short, as if he were still the Massachusetts prosecutor boning up for a case."

This clearly has its upside. However, the trade-off is:

"But the downside to his deliberative executive style, they said, is a campaign that has often moved slowly against a swift opponent, and a candidate who has struggled to synthesize the information he sweeps up into a clear, concise case against Mr. Bush.

Even his aides concede that Mr. Kerry can be slow in taking action, bogged down in the very details he is so intent on collecting, as suggested by the fact that he never even used the Medicare information he sent his staff chasing."

Kerry's decision making creates perverse incentives for his advisors:

"His habit of soliciting one more point of view prompted one close adviser to say he had learned to wait until the last minute before weighing in: Mr. Kerry, he said, is apt to be most influenced by the last person who has his ear. His aides rejoiced earlier this year when Mr. Kerry yielded his cellphone to an aide, a move they hoped would limit his distractions in seeking out contrary opinions."

The story suggests a lack of focus in Kerry's questioning:

"At meetings, Mr. Kerry poses contrarian questions in an often wandering quest for data and conflicting opinions, a style that his aides, sometimes with a roll of the eyes, call Socratic."

Other insights: Kerry's been willing to make decisive personnel changes, but he's made them often enough that he's left with a staff with relatively little personal "history" with him or loyalty to him. The article also portrays him as more interested in policy than politics:

"Mr. Kerry has less of an interest in the processes of politics than the president does. If Mr. Bush likes to talk about party registration breakdowns in southern Ohio, Mr. Kerry drifts off when the subject turns to the demographic details of campaign polling. While Mr. Bush screens new television advertisements in the White House family quarters, Mr. Kerry is often satisfied with viewing a rough cut, or skimming a script. He is also apt to exhibit a blank face when he runs into a Democratic leader he should remember, one aide said."