Gov. John Hickenlooper, unwrapped and available
“Hickenlooper comes across in his biography, as in his political career, as a moderate voter’s dream. He is permanently in the middle of the road.”
John Wright Hickenlooper, Colorado’s current governor, has a new wife, a new lieutenant governor, and a new book — a book that essentially advertises that our unconventional, quirky and popular term-limited leader is available for other challenges.
The new book, titled “The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics” (Penguin, May 2016), is a standard campaign biography. This is not to say the book is untrue or makes up false claims for Hickenlooper. It is more to say the book fits selected facts from Hickenlooper’s life and persona into a mold that voters will like.
Although the life facts of the candidates change from book to book, all campaign biographies are about the same person — an idealized vision of a man or woman that everyone can admire personally and politically support.
Here are the characteristics of campaign biographies and how the Hickenlooper book fits right in: Comes from a Distinguished Family — The book describes at length Hickenlooper’s many notable forebears. Particularly important were a grandfather who fought in Sherman’s March to the Sea in the Civil War and a dedicated and frugal mother who grew up in the upscale Main Line suburbs west of Philadelphia. Went to Well-Known
Colleges — Hickenlooper went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, earning an undergraduate English degree and a graduate degree in geology.
Faced Adversity in Early Life — Hickenlooper’s father died when he was 8 years old. He also lost his job as an oil and gas geologist (and then famously went into the brew pub business instead).
Strong Supporter of Family Values — Hickenlooper emphasizes his close relationship to his mother, quoting her common-sense, motherly wisdom frequently.
Dragged into Politics by Others — Hickenlooper does a good job of listing countless people who contributed to his political career and urged him to run successfully for mayor of Denver and, later on, successfully for governor of Colorado.
Above Petty Partisan Politics — This, of course, is Hickenlooper’s well-crafted brand. He never emphasizes that he runs for office as a Democrat. “Reaching across the aisle” and doing things in a bipartisan way are his standard modes of operation. Takes Frequent Stands on Issues Many People Agree On — Hickenlooper does not just tell his life story. He comments and evaluates things as he writes. He strongly identifies himself with attracting businesses to create jobs, public-private partnerships,
municipal unions being forced to bid against private enterprise for jobs, and taking a regional approach to Denver-area problems.
There is one part of the book that is out of line with campaign biographies but will probably work in this day and age. Hickenlooper fends off possible damaging inquiries into his private life by telling about his youthful loves, his two marriages, his one divorce, and his child.
Will a book that was published two months before the Democratic National Convention in July gain a vice-presidential nomination for Hickenlooper?
It might work. Hickenlooper comes across in his biography, as in his political career, as a moderate voter’s dream. He is permanently in the middle of the road. He studiously relies on volunteer committees to discover compromises that could solve political and governmental problems.
With outsiders such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders stirring the 2016 presidential election pot so stridently, Hickenlooper could bring a soothing and reliable moderate vicepresidential candidate to the Democratic ticket.
And what does Gov. Hickenlooper leave out of his campaign biography? He never mentions the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), which hamstrings Colorado governments financially at both the state and local levels, and which so many goodgovernment groups want to get rid of.
He leaves out the rapidly rising tuition at the state’s public colleges and universities and how difficult that is making it for economically challenged students to get a higher education. There’s no comment about the fact that the only way to build new highways in Colorado is through public-private partnerships that charge high tolls on express lanes.
Absent is a discussion of inequality or any of the other issues raised by Sanders’ campaign.
Although a standard campaign biography, Hickenlooper’s book celebrates the way Coloradans have dealt with fires, floods, inexplicable violence, and the economic recession of 2007-2009. He takes some justifiable credit for Colorado’s economic revitalization — and he waxes rhetorically that Colorado does not quit. Colorado does not break. “What we showed the world is that Colorado is the opposite of woe. Colorado is where we come together and giddy-up.”
In like spirit, Hickenlooper is available.