President Obama Should Take Lessons From Nelson Mandela

One of America's most prominent and well-respected pollsters has a piece of advice for Barack Obama: study Nelson Mandela.

Stan Greenberg, who helped guide Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992 and was credited by Mandela for his presidential victory in '94, drew political parallels between the current White House occupant and the famed anti-Apartheid leader. Both transcended deep and bitter racial divisions, he said. Both promised a fundamental restructuring of the political and economic institutions in their countries.

But Mandela's political history also contains a cautionary note, one from which Obama would be wise to learn: even in the most fortunate of circumstances, politicians stumble.

"I would advise [Obama] to read the Mandela chapter very closely," said Greenberg, discussing his newly released book, "Dispatches From The War Room," which documents his work with five prominent world leaders. "Obviously you had a big crisis and big transformation then. There were new electoral alignments and [Mandela] had high popular support and some big achievements. And yet, even there, when people are desperate, you can lose their support."

"I'm really impressed with Obama and his leadership and his White House and his team," he added. "I'm impressed with the big forces that have emerged from winning the 2006 and 2008 elections, which have created a powerful moment for Obama to do well. But, it is also true that in every place that I've worked, even in South Africa with Mandela, [presidents and prime ministers] have all struggled to keep people with them. There is disillusionment in every one of these cases. There is a sense of high hopes and then despair when they fail to deliver. Look at the South Africa chapter on this. You have Mandela who [brought] an end of segregation, people of color now sitting in the parliament after it was all white, water and electricity going to the African areas, and within a year it is like nothing. 'Where is the housing? Where are the jobs?' It quickly turned into disillusionment."

It is a hard reality for elected officials to confront, but one that Obama should brace for. In "Dispatches From The War Room," Greenberg details how, just years after triumphantly ascending to power, Mandela was confronted with bleak news: his party was being blamed for failures in governance and was sitting at the "red line" of 50 percent popularity.

"Mandela was disturbed and did not dispute the reality or mask his distress," Greenberg writes of a breakfast the two shared one morning in Johannesburg. "Then, rather than drawing a wise conclusion as he usually does, he simply said, 'We have much to do.'"

Dislodged from its complacency, the ANC went on to retain power in the next election (though Mandela was not on the ballot). But the lesson of that event -- one that Greenberg learned all too well from the U.S. congressional elections in 1994 -- was that, in politics, nothing