Well Crafted Messaging

Long before I decided to run for office, one such instance occurred that has stuck with me ever since and guided my actions when I did decide to run for office.

I was mountain biking in Fruita, CO with some friends. We were camping out at a campground, and after dinner one night, I snuck back into my vehicle to listen on the radio to a Presidential debate between W. Bush and John Kerry. It happened to be the first time Bush decided to “Swiftboat” Kerry by questioning Kerry’s service and record in Vietnam.

Bush is saying all sorts of things about Kerry’s actions (or supposed lack thereof in Vietnam) and accusing him of lying about his record.

Now I don’t know about anyone reading this, but if that was being done to me after I had been through the hell of war, I know how I would have felt; I would have felt like punching Bush in the f*^king face. Hard. And more than once. Maybe more than three times. And I had never punched anyone in the face before (and still never have).

I sat stunned in my vehicle as I listened to Kerry, in his blue blood patrician way, calmly try to “message” his way out of these personal attacks. All I could think of was what would John Doe voter sitting on his couch and watching this on TV feel in his gut, and how would he want a Presidential candidate to respond? I think I knew the answer then (and now). JD voter would want Kerry to figuratively punch Bush in the face. He would want an authentically and appropriately emotional and unscripted response from someone being personally attacked - especially for his conduct in war. I would even argue that if Kerry had walked across the stage and literally punched Bush in the face, he would have gained more voters than he lost.

IMHO, Kerry lost the race that night against a truly politically vulnerable and incompetent opponent. I don’t know if it was b/c he really is an unemotional person who doesn’t like to reveal his feelings, or if he thought he needed to react in a certain “reasonable” way that seemed like it would be good “messaging”. All I know is he reacted in a way that most of America viewed as, well, kind of pathetic and weak. And certainly not how JD voter would have reacted.

I once held a press conference on reducing the national debt. All went well until I was asked about military spending. In accordance with my desire to give honest answers to all questions, I launched into an answer. I talked about how we spend more on our military budget than almost all other countries combined. I stated that the nature of the threats against us has changed, and we shouldn’t be fighting, or funding, the last war. I used the example of aircraft carrier groups, wondering if we couldn’t take the billions of dollars it takes to support even one aircraft carrier battle group and reallocate that into other areas – funding special forces for asymmetrical warfare, paying our members of the military better, and better supporting other non-conventional military items in a post-9/11 world. Finished with answering the question, the press conference moved on.

Of course, my opponent immediately attacked me (with one of my favorite lines of the campaign): As one newspaper quoted my opponent’s campaign manager, ‘"The only multi-headed monster in this campaign is [Joe Wypoxic],"‘

“Multi-headed monster”? Gratuitous but admittedly very creative.

I could handle the over-the-top attack – but it was the tenor of the news reports the next day that disturbed me. After an entire press conference devoted to issues and specifics about cutting the national debt during a time of plenty, headlines blared things like, “[Joe Wypoxic] Wants to Cut Military Spending”.

Agggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. Lesson learned. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I would focus like a laser on the message I wanted to communicate that day, no matter what someone asked me. 

Sadly, a loss for both me and voters. And one of the main reasons that politicians don’t directly answer your question.