Charisma's the flickering flame that politicians crave

The controversial article in the July Vanity Fair about Bill Clinton's many missteps as he campaigned for his wife's presidential bid and a new book about Bobby Kennedy's 1968 run for the presidency both raise intriguing questions about the magic of charisma -- and, in Bill Clinton's case, just how fleeting that magic can be.

All of which makes you wonder if the man who beat out Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama, will hold onto his charisma -- defined by Webster's as "a special quality of leadership that captures the popular imagination and inspires allegiance and devotion."

The story about Clinton's fumbles in the campaign caused the former president to trip on his tongue once again. That happened a few weeks ago when he was asked what he thought of the story by Todd Purdum, who is married to Dee Dee Myers, a former spokeswoman for Clinton. Clinton called Purdum "a real slimy guy" and "a really dishonest reporter," among other things. He later apologized.

The story hints that Clinton may have strayed from monogamy on the campaign trail, although Purdum writes that "none of these wisps of smoke have produced a public fire." In other words, there's no concrete evidence. But the story is much stronger in exploring Bill Clinton's often quirky campaigning for his wife.

At some stops, Clinton showed his old magic. He did that outside the Forsyth County Government Center on election day for the North Carolina primary.

Red-faced and thinner than usual, wearing a suit despite the sweltering heat, he gladly shook all the hands he could and talked to one man about health care for five minutes. The crowd loved him, or at least they seemed to from my vantage point, corralled into a press area.

A campaign worker told a few of us journalists that at one point, it seemed as though Clinton was headed toward us. She seemed relieved that he didn't make it.

At other stops, as when he tried to belittle Obama's South Carolina primary win by referring to Jesse Jackson's two wins there, the once-master campaigner just blew it. Why?

"There is reason to believe that Clinton, who never made more than $35,000 a year as governor of Arkansas and left the White House about $12 million in debt, has had his head turned by his ability to enjoy his post-presidential status; that the world of rich friends, adoring fans, and borrowed jets in which he travels has skewed his judgment, or, at a minimum, created uncomfortable appearances of impropriety. … There are those friends who worry that Clinton has never been the same since his quadruple bypass surgery, in 2004, and the unexpected follow-up operation six months later to remove accumulated scar tissue on his lung," Purdum writes.

One senior aide told Purdum that Clinton has "an anger in him that I find surprising." Others have speculated that Clinton, at least subconsciously, never really wanted his wife to win the presidency. For whatever reason, his charisma is waning.

Bobby Kennedy was never known for charisma until his last months, when, transformed by grief over his brother Jack's assassination, he mounted his fascinating campaign for president. The Last Campaign, a new book by Thurston Clarke, is one of the best ever about that campaign. Here's Clarke writing about RFK waving from a convertible making its way through a crowd in Stockton, Calif.:

"Gangs of children ran alongside, screaming ‘Bobby!' and flinging open their arms to embrace him. Whenever he stopped, hundreds of outstretched arms encircled him so that in photographs taken from above he appeared to be the bud in the center of an exotic flower … The pictures that Life photographer Bill Eppridge took of audiences listening to Robert Kennedy and the Beatles are eerily similar. In both, young men and women stare up at a stage, faces shining, mouths open, and eyes glazed over in rapture."

Forty summers to the month after Bobby Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles, Obama is having much the same effect on crowds. He's being compared to JFK and RFK, two of the most charismatic politicians of the 20th century.

Battling it out with the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, Obama is trying hard to show he has the substance to back his charisma, while still making the most of that magic quality. He should. It can flicker out in a flash. Just ask Bill Clinton.

■ John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com.