Mark Leibovich: “In recent years, American politics has been overrun by an adversity-theft epidemic. These days, the practice has infested campaigns across the country, at every level, wherever the tiresome same notes of media consultants can be heard — as in, pretty much everywhere. It does not matter that the most recent hard knocks endured by many of today’s politicians came well before they were born, as with Chris Christie, whose father worked in a Breyer’s plant. We will still hear about it as if it were yesterday.”
Unions Can Learn from the Tea Party
Marc Ambinder: “I don’t think unions will ever give up on Democrats. The party will always be friendlier than Republicans. In big, populous states, union endorsements still matter.”
“But I do predict, based on conversations I’ve had with labor leaders here, that, to get attention, labor will take a page from the Tea Party movement and try to become more militant and more focused on income inequality. Because Americans support labor’s causes, by and large, but don’t like the labor movement as a spokesman for them, I also predict that the labor movement will go through several more circular firing squads, where forward-thinking union leaders call for the movement at large to devote less political attention to the specific, contractual concerns of their own workers and more to campaigns that non-union workers can rally around, like state minimum wage campaigns, and a call to reduce concentrated corporate political power.”
Democrats Turn Sexist Remarks Into Fundraising Tools
“In the past few months, Republicans have called Wendy Davis, a Democratic candidate for Texas governor, ‘Abortion Barbie,’ likened Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Senate candidate from Kentucky, to an ’empty dress,’ criticized Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thighs, and referred to a pregnant woman as a ‘host,” the New York Times reports.
“Democrats do not just get mad when they hear those words. They cash in.”
“In fact, they are trying to find even more examples by tracking Republican opponents, their surrogates and conservative news media personalities, then blasting their comments out to supporters to build voter lists and drum up donations, casting aside the well-worn advice to shrug off sexist comments lest they draw attention to gender over issues.”
Campaign Fundraisers Get Creative
Los Angeles Times: “Forget the chicken dinner, the rubbery staple of the political fundraising circuit… The push to be creative and different — did we mention the food truck serving lobster or the trip to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race? — grows out of the fierce competition for limited campaign dollars, reflected by the more than two dozen invitations that some Washington lobbyists say arrive in the mail every day.”
“This being Washington, politicians, as always, are looking for ways to stand out.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“In politics, nobody does something for nothing.”
— Connecticut Democratic Party Chairwoman Nany DiNardo, quoted by the Connecticut Post.
A Tactic Rarely Used
The Week: Why don’t more politicians apologize?
The Diversionary Dog
David Smith: “There is little doubt that dogs are politically useful. A half-serious study in the political science journal PS suggests a ‘diversionary dog’ theory. The authors find that presidents display their dogs more during wartime and scandals, though less during economic crises, when the public does not want to see the president frolicking with a spoiled pet.”
Huma Channels Hillary
Eleanor Clift: “We all know that Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, learned from the master: she worked for Hillary Clinton in the late 1990s, when the first lady was humiliated by Bill during the Monica Lewinsky affair but nevertheless chose to stand by him. Now Abedin is soldiering her way through a similar situation. And at Tuesday’s press conference, where she spoke on her husband’s behalf in the wake of new allegations against him, it was clear that she was operating from the Hillary playbook. Her message to the public was simple: she loves him, she’s forgiven him, she believes in him, and they’re moving forward.”
“This strategy worked for the Clintons politically. But after this latest press conference, I’m pretty sure that Abedin has stretched the Hillary mantle past the breaking point.”
Two Different Comeback Strategies
Capital New York notes that Eliot Spitzer “seems happy to indulge his status as a national celebrity, in a way that Anthony Weiner, by comparison, hasn’t seen fit to do. Weiner, for all the press coverage he’s generated, has yet to sit for a single national television interview since he entered the race in May.”
The Evolving Flip-Flopper
Howard Kurtz: “Once it was all so blatant. Some calculating pol, realizing that his position had become unpopular or untenable, would execute a backflip off the high board. The press would blow the whistle on this naked opportunism, and the flip-flop police would beat him senseless.”
“Now the slippery officeholders and aspirants simply announce that they are ‘evolving.’ I mean, who could be against that?”
“Evolving suggests a certain intellectual process as the person in question grapples with new evidence. It is part of a continuing quest to sort through the nuances and reach a modern conclusion in these turbulent times. It is practically professorial rather than a shameful cave-in.”
A Washington Fight
Rick Klein: “It’s either the worst kind of Washington fight, or the best kind. The stand-off over sequestration’s automatic spending cuts is peculiar in part because there’s no real attempt to do anything about it. All the focus is falling on who should take the blame after it happens. So it’s the worst kind of fight because something big is about to happen, with real consequences for government and military services, that almost nobody in Washington wants to see take place. But it’s the best kind of fight because at least this time there’s no brinksmanship and almost certainly fruitless late-night, high-stakes meeting.”
Doing the Opposite
The Cloakroom: Maybe President Obama should use reverse psychology to get his agenda past Republicans.
Celebrating the Filth of Politics
Marc Ambinder: “Politics without dirty deals is not politics. It’s something else.
It’s not something we’ve seen here; there are no historical antecedents
for it. Purely deliberative reasoning, shorn of self-interest, is an
academic exercise. Let it by all means by an aspirational ideal. Call
out cynicism where you see it, but don’t lump all cynicism and
opportunism together. Be wary of judging what is with what you think must be. If humanism on a grand scale is your goal, you aren’t going to get there without getting mud on your jersey.”
It’s the Backdrop, Stupid
The Cloakroom: When politicians forget what’s behind them.
Media Tip: The Right Way to Apologize
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
You’ve made a mistake. Fair enough. It happens.
But far too many politicians and public officials are reluctant to issue a full and unequivocal apology after making a mistake. That’s not because they’re bad or uncaring people. More commonly, it’s a human reaction from a defensive person who feels that his or her well-intentioned motives were misunderstood.
As a result, the spokesperson usually issues a hedged “half apology” that goes something like this:
“If you were offended by what I said, then I am sorry.”
Media Tip: Why You Shouldn’t Speak to Reporters
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
How would you define “media interview”? Most people would say that a media interview occurs when someone–often a spokesperson from a company, campaign, or agency–speaks with a reporter.
Pretty straightforward, yes?
But spokespersons who define media interviews that way are making a big mistake. A media interview is not a conversation with a reporter. It is a highly focused form of communication aimed squarely at your audience. The reporter is merely the conduit through which you reach it.
Media Tip: How to Recover From a Brain Freeze
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
In November 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s presidential bid was effectively ended after he went blank for an excruciatingly painful 47 seconds during a primary debate. Although that moment became rather infamous (I rated it the worst gaffe of Election 2012), Mr. Perry is far from alone.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer suffered a similar fate during a gubernatorial debate in 2010, when she went blank for 13 seconds. It was even worse for Jeanine Pirro, a candidate who briefly ran for Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat in 2005 but who saw her campaign almost instantaneously grounded after misplacing a page of her announcement speech and going silent for 32 seconds.
The truth is that most of us have suffered a similar–if less high profile–brain freeze. So what should you do if you go blank during an interview, debate, or speech?
Media Tip: 5 Things to Remember Next Time You Go on TV
A guest post from Brad Phillips, author of The Media Training Bible.
Appearing on television can be an odd experience, especially for spokespersons who aren’t familiar with some of the more challenging formats (such as “remote” interviews, in which spokespersons look directly into a camera and speak to a host in a different location).
This post will help strip away some of the mystery by arming you with five details you’ll need to know prior to your next television interview.
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