Assuming you haven’t been asleep or out of the country the last couple of weeks, you know that Colorado’s own former Gov. John Hickenlooper is running for president. And if you saw recent reporting on how it is going for Mr. Hickenlooper, the answer is well, not so good so far, with less than 1 percent of Iowa voters listing him as their first choice. No one can accuse Mr. Hickenlooper of being lazy –  stories in Colorado Politics shows he is traveling hundreds of miles to talk with voters and is bringing a mix of the humor and smarts we saw during his terms as governor, as well as the pragmatism that helped him win here, but may create a problem of pragmatism on the national scale.

Full disclosure – I know Gov. Hickenlooper a tiny bit. If we met, he’d say “hey there buddy” with a vague awareness that we had met. So, I’ll claim that wee bit of kindred spirit status. And, unless and until my old boss Sen. Michael Bennet tosses his hat into the ring, I’m inclined to support Mr. Hickenlooper.  

Unfortunately, the very pragmatism that appeals to me about both Gov. Hickenlooper and Sen. Bennet is the challenge that may keep either gentleman from gaining the Democratic nomination for president, and might even work against them in the general election.

I like pragmatists because so few of the nation’s problems and challenges offer clear black-and-white, right-or-wrong, one-size-fits-all solutions. As both men know from their elective office so far, the problems that land on a president’s desk are never simple or easy – no easy problem makes it to the president’s desk. The simple stuff gets decided at lower levels. As a result, a sitting president faces the most difficult, momentous and consequential decisions of anyone, frankly, on Earth. In this dynamic and fast-changing (cough…North Korea…cough) world, our national interests are best served, not by an ideologically rigid absolutist, but rather by a skilled pragmatist who understands the gravitas of the moment but can also think of the long-term consequences of his or her decision. 

Unfortunately for pragmatic candidates, the “horse race” nature of how the media (both real and fake, so to speak) cover political races – who is up, who is down, and by how many points will usually trump the story about a new and pragmatic approach to say, the Farm Bill. All too many voters, especially in primary elections, want what they consider a clear-talking, no-nonsense person who will get to D.C. and will drain the swamp, clear the deadwood, fire the lazy, and clean up the mess – can I get an Amen?

But, gentle reader, as you know, problems are stubborn things. Rare is the problem that is, in fact, fixed by a single simple act. Real problems need grownups. Our Mr. Trump has shown in dramatic and dangerous examples (cough…North Korea…cough) that not studying up and just “winging it” is no way to run a nation.

Yet in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump hit a nerve with enough voters in key swing states to take the Electoral College majority. He proclaimed everything was simple, all any problem needed was a few minutes of his time, and since he doesn’t tell the truth that much, only he could fix the problems because he knew more than the generals and experts. He promised a drop in the deficit and the debt, but his policies have resulted in both rising instead. He brags about the stock market but fails to note that the market nearly tripled under President Obama, and he inherited a vibrant and “bouncing-back” economy. Mr. Trump is the true anti-pragmatist and sees simple solutions to complex problems, just as soon has he’s gotten his marching orders from Fox News. And to his core 42 percent of voters, that’s all they want to hear.

To actually govern successfully, you need a strong streak of pragmatism, but to win elections, if the Trump model is correct, you need to be the opposite of Hickenlooper and Bennet – you need to proclaim a simple solution exists for every problem, and you are the person with that solution. As honest pragmatists, both gents will tell you that it takes hard work to help mend a broken government.

I admire and respect the diverse backgrounds of both Hickenlooper and Bennet. Too many on the far left may be upset with their success in business before turning to politics, but that very experience has made them the type of candidate we should want in office. Time will tell if being smart and pragmatic will win the day. I hope so, but I’m not laying odds yet.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.