Public vs. Private

Unfortunately, over the past week, we’ve had two sad reminders of just how blurry the line is between public and private in politics.  The announcements of the recurrence of cancer for both Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow have created many questions and spurred a lot of debate.
Some people believe that John Edwards has made a [...]

Flipper

As a young staff member on my highschool newspaper, I wrote a scathing (ahem)  indictment of presidential candidate Clinton (original recipe) during the ’92 election.  My argument, basically, was that you couldn’t trust him because he had publicly reversed his stand on abortion during his time as governor.  I should point out that at the time, I [...]

Beware the Jelly Doughnut

It’s been forty-plus years since John F. Kennedy famously stated, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” While grammatically correct, this moment has gone down in history as a joke, with the story being that the statement means, “I am a jelly doughnut,” not “I am a citizen of Berlin.”
Given the time that has passed, and the persistence [...]

Target practice

With all the political brou-ha-ha going on in DC right now, this small story from the AP on Tuesday was easily lost in the shuffle. Apparently, John Edwards is very proud of his energy efficient manse.
I think it’s important that politician’s actions match up with their words–they need to walk the walk, if they [...]

Branded, Part II

Continued from yesterday …
In reality, the U.S. has outgrown the two party system. There are too many public policy issues and too many possible opinions to split into two clearly defined, separate groups. Yes, the Democrats used to be the working man’s political party. Today? Not so much. Republicans hold [...]

Branded

Heaven knows that there is an abundance of political issues to discuss:  the outcry surrounding the AG dismissals; the continuing criticism of the war in Iraq; and further evidence that the White House manipulated government information on global warming.  However, all of this has been analyzed ad nauseum across the web.  What caught my attention [...]

Is the Past, Past?

Troublesome family histories are nothing new in politics.  Unfortunately, they can be a liability for a campaign.  Some have overcome this (albeit in simpler times) such as Bush, Clinton and Reagan.  But with today’s intense scrutiny of the press and bloggers, can a candidate survive?
Rudy Giuliani looks to be the first guinea pig of the 2008 [...]

Too much?

Last week, New York magazine featured a short blurb about New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s prodigious press release production.  Apparently, the AG’s office had distributed about 50 press releases in the first 7 weeks of 2007.  As of 3/5, it looks like he’s up to 61. 
From the perspective of the AG’s office, these releases [...]

Tangled

On Friday, conservative Ann Coulter spoke off-the-cuff at the American Conservative Union’s Political Action Conference and used an anti-gay slur to insult John Edwards.  To most traditional PR people, this is their worst nightmare.  Flacks dread nothing more than their spokespeople going off-message and causing a stir.  However, Coulter is a different beast–she’s built a [...]

Your Strategy is Showing

On Tuesday, the media reported on the leak of Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy document (with the awesome title, “Primal Code for Brand Romney”).  Reading this coverage is fascinating–it offers insight into the thinking behind packaging and promoting a candidate.
I use “packaging” and “promoting” intentionally–it’s clear we’ve entered an age where the politician is the product [...]