FIRST RACES. NPR has been running a series on current presidential candidates and their first major campaigns. The pieces look at their first big races, and the lessons they learned by either winning or losing. It offers insight into this career-shaping era of the politicians as we see them today. Obama talks about how he got "spanked" in his run for the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Illinois in March 2000, largely because he was inexperienced. Huckabee's first loss, in a bid for a Senate seat in Arkansas, taught him that listening to political consultants isn't always the best choice. Giuliani's problem was that he seemed to change his stances too much. Clinton had to take on voters who couldn't swallow her persona, or at least a prevailing unfavorable public perception of her persona. The most fascinating element of the series is that many of the issues they had to confront in those first elections are the same they're facing today, and that most of the "problems" have little to do with their actual policies or positions. Most of them are about how they appear -- both on their resume and in physical traits or manner of speaking.
--Kate Sheppard
