How we can put past presidents to good use

By Timothy Walch

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to the rescue! Haiti is in desperate need of assistance, and who better to lead the effort than a couple of former presidents. Really? President Barack Obama seems to think so.

Two days after that devastating earthquake hit Haiti, the president announced that Clinton and Bush would spearhead a national fundraising effort to provide aid to the island republic.

At first thought, these former presidents seem to make an odd team to lead a vast humanitarian effort. After all, they share little in common other than the presidency. But perhaps we're not giving sufficient credit to the special nature of their shared experience. They're among a handful of men who know the contours of presidential power, as well as the influence they have in retirement. That special knowledge, wisdom and status could be put to good use.

This isn't exactly a new idea. Post-presidential careers began when John Quincy Adams left the White House in 1829 and served in Congress from 1831 until his death in 1848. After his presidency, William Howard Taft was dean of the Yale Law School and chief justice of the United States. And Jimmy Carter was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize for his post presidential work in humanitarian relief.

Presidential partnerships first emerged when Harry Truman appointed Herbert Hoover to lead a famine emergency committee after World War II. Over the next eight years, those two very different men worked together to stabilize Europe and reorganize the executive branch of the federal government.

These collaborations have become fairly frequent in the last several decades. Carter, for example, worked closely with the late Gerald R. Ford on several projects. And don't forget that George H.W. Bush joined Clinton in raising funds for nations devastated by the Southeast Asia tsunami.

These partnerships, however, are less than perfect. Perhaps the biggest limitation is their lack of planning and continuity. The earthquake in Haiti is a perfect example. Clinton and Bush had only passing contact until the earthquake brought them together. What will happen after the crisis has passed? In all likelihood, the partnership will fade - until the next crisis.

It might be beneficial to institutionalize the role and responsibilities of former presidents.

One option would be to make all former presidents honorary members of the U.S. Senate. This idea was first floated in the 1950s. Although appealing, this action would require a constitutional amendment and is not likely make the best use of a former president's influence and abilities.

Another possibility would be for sitting presidents to convene a “council of former presidents” to raise public awareness of critical issues such as starvation in Africa or head up commissions on, say, the future of Social Security or even health care reform. Former presidents of different parties working together would be likely to stimulate solutions to complex national and international problems. At the very least, sitting presidents could meet regularly with their predecessors to seek advice on matters of national and international concern.

Shared experience brings these men together in friendship and partnership. Hoover once referred to former presidents as “that most exclusive trade union.” Exclusive, indeed. Our former presidents are a band of brothers with a mutual respect that only they can fully appreciate. They want to be useful, alone and together, and whoever is sitting in the Oval Office has the power and the suasion to challenge them to put their experience to use.

That is the hidden message behind the Clinton- Bush initiative in Haiti and bodes well for work yet to be done in other areas of public life.

Timothy Walch is the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, and the editor, with Richard Norton Smith, of “Farewell to the Chief: The Role of Former President in American Public Life” (1990).