Amy Klobuchar: bad boss?

[BloombergOpinion]( [Early Returns]( [Jonathan Bernstein]( Senator Amy Klobuchar will apparently be declaring her presidential candidacy this weekend. She’s already run into trouble, in the form of a HuffPost article reporting that she’s [mistreated her staff over the years]( – so much so that she’s had a hard time finding anyone to run her campaign. What are we to make of such stories? It’s certainly a legitimate factor to consider when choosing a candidate. Inability to manage a staff would be a real problem for any president. It can yield heavy turnover, excessive leaks that make the president look bad, and lower-quality personnel in the White House and perhaps across the executive branch. Whether someone will actually be good at presidenting is probably the [most important question]( to ask when choosing a candidate, and the ability get the most out of a staff is an essential skill. On the other hand, we should always be careful about this kind of story. Capitol Hill is filled with folks who love nothing more than gossiping about politics, and every senator has strengths and weaknesses that their staffs see up close. Sometimes that produces reputations of the sort Klobuchar seems to have acquired. My guess is that those reputations almost always contain a little truth -- but how true they are varies quite a bit. When reputation is in play, for instance, it would be surprising if the rumor mill wasn’t influenced by stereotypes and biases. Does a female senator get a bad reputation for behavior that would be considered tough but fair in a male member of Congress? Are a handful of episodes more likely to generate a “bad boss” reputation for a woman than for a man, perhaps because some staffers (and ex-staffers) are quicker to take offense when a woman is harsh with them? In other words, it wouldn’t be a shock if we hear about the weaknesses of women in elected office more often. But I’m skeptical that’s because they’re in fact more likely to maltreat their staffs. In a [study of staff turnover]( in the Senate from 2001 to 2016, a stunning seven of the top 10 high-turnover senators were women, during an era in which women made up less than a quarter of the chamber. Perhaps those seven women – including Klobuchar, who had the top spot at that point – were truly awful bosses. But that’s some coincidence to believe. (A more [recent version]( has Klobuchar down to third, and women making up only half of the top 10.) It’s worth watching whether Klobuchar churns through staff during her campaign, and whether the peers who know her best endorse her or not. It’s also worth asking if this kind of reputation seems to have reduced her effectiveness as a candidate or as a senator over the years. The puzzler: This kind of thing is one reason that insider vetting should be an important part of the presidential nomination process – and also one reason it can go wrong really quickly. 1. Dan Drezner on [Trump’s foreign policy]( after two years. 2. Matt Ferchen at the Monkey Cage on [China and Venezuela](. 3. Simon Gilhooley at A House Divided on [liberalism and illiberalism in U.S. history.]( As he says, the question is a complicated one. The franchise has expanded and contracted, sometimes at the same time; parties that are unusually permeable at one point can also rigidly lock some citizens out at the same time. Reforms can improve some aspects of democracy while making others worse. 4. Very good one from my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Ramesh Ponnuru on [Trump’s ad-libbing presidency](. I’d add: Even though he’s not serious about much of what he says, it sometimes has consequences anyway. Trump’s restrictionist position on legal immigration, after all, prevented a deal on the border wall last year, even if he didn’t actually care about it in any lasting way. 5. Heather Hulburt on [Trump and moral responsibility]( in foreign policy. Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. [Click here to subscribe](hash=b9b2681361bede0e1069ca238efb1ec2). Also subscribe to [Bloomberg All AccessÂ](and get much, much more. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close. Bloomberg L.P. ● 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Web]( ● [Facebook]( ● [Twitter]( [Feedback]( ● [Unsubscribe](