Palin: No Comment
Whether you like politics or not, it’s certainly a great canvas from which to learn about PR best practices. As the campaign for president heads into its final weeks, I plan to watch the proceedings with an eye toward how the campaigns manage their candidates.
Take for instance, Sarah Palin’s recent trip overseas. Peter Himler noted on his blog “The Flack” yesterdayhow McCain campaign spokesperson Tracey Schmitt handled media questions about why the campaign was not allowing Palin to speak to the media during the trip. Schmitt said:
“The decision was made for this to be a photo spray with still cameras and video cameras only.”
The McCain campaign is trying very hard to keep Palin from embarrassing herself in public or otherwise exposing her lack of foreign policy experience. Why then send her overseas? At least give her some talking points and let her make a statement. By keeping her under wraps the campaign is creating the exact issue they are supposedly trying to avoid. I wonder sometimes if these campaign flacks have even the most basic PR education.
McCain too has been avoiding taking media questions, causing one reporter yesterday to yell out: “Senator, has your bus become the No Talk Express?” Silence is never the best policy when it comes to PR.
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Comments
September 24th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Let’s see how long this “pushing back” of the media will work for them.
GET OUT THE VOTE!
September 24th, 2008 at 9:26 am
A “photo spray”?
Maybe they sent her overseas so she isn’t available to respond to subpoenas.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Len,
Thanks for the link. Her managed photo-op actually took place in NYC yesterday,
Peter
September 24th, 2008 at 9:34 am
First of all, Sarah Palin is not overseas — she’s in NYC at the United Nations.
Second, the McCain-Palin media strategy is focused on local and regional media, not national reporters. And, of course, the national reporters are complaining about it. But you can’t deny that it’s clearly a more effective strategy. After all, here in Phoenix, do the majority of voters get their news from the Arizona Republic or The New York Times?
You can read all about it at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13786.html
September 24th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Loved this post! I think it is all becoming crystal clear with this campaign… they have nothing intelligent to say, so they are saying nothing at all. (Thank you McCain for sparing us the agony that we have gone through with all mindless rhetoric from George Bush) Thankfully, Palin and McCan’t are making it just a bit easier for Obama to win the election… and I am truly happy for that!!!
September 24th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Let’s be fair and balanced shall we?
What about the many PR gaffs that Obama’s running mate Joe Biden has made?
It’s clear that the Obama campaign needs to ensure that their candidates are consistent on their messaging. For example, Obama criticized McCain for his response to a question posed by Matt Lauer regarding the AIG bailout, but when asked the same question Biden agreed with McCain. Obama’s response? That “Joe should have waited.” Ouch.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:48 am
My experience as a reporter was that Republican presidential candidates would stack the campaign stop venues with ringers pretending to be reporters and they’d ask carefully orchestrated questions which generated a scripted response.
Perhaps that tactic no longer works and the “no comment” approach is their new way to attempt to control content.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
In my experience as a reporter, I’ve never seen a presidential candidate’s campaign stop more scripted than the show the Democrats put on.
September 24th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I will do my best to offer input on the PR issues related to both candidates over the next few weeks. It’s just so much easier to find fault with McCain!
September 24th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
From a public relations standpoint, what was McCain’s intent on trying to cancel Friday’s debate?
He is on the ropes thanks to a well thought out response by Obama’s camp.
They subliminally brought the age question back into play. Check how David Letterman worked McCain over for 10 minutes on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E
September 24th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
You’re so right Len. There’s is much more material to work with when it comes to McCain.
Today’s stunt was shameful! Do they really think that the majority of the people are stupid? Wait…don’t answer that.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Other’s are seeing McCain’s PR falling out. From AP (that’s Associated Press for all those wonderful Phoenix PR experts – and newspaper interns/journalists at a certain daily):
“His efforts to re-energize his presidential campaign will partly turn on who wins the public relations battle, destined to play out for days.
“He did not attend meetings where the bailout legislation was being hashed out, and some rank-and-file lawmakers saw little impact from his visit.”
September 26th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Just watched the debate (first 2008 presidential) and it is worse than described by this blog. First person up on NBC after the debate – Joe Biden, a U.S. senator!
After his two minutes, NBC made it CLEAR that the Republicans would not let Sarah Palin loose. “We extended the offer,” the talking head said.
Instead they had Rudy Guiliani, who currently holds no political office. Again, where’s Arnold?
During his two minutes, Guiliani grilled what Obama didn’t do, but admitted he didn’t watch the whole debate. From his demeanor during his two minutes, it appeared he was off getting too many mai tais.
Great public relations.
Even the governor of California, who can NEVER be president, has avoided the convention and debate. Everyone in the U.S. should ask what does Arnold know?
His wife was at the Democratic convention. During the Democratic convention, he had to be like Todd Palin, home watching the kids instead of concentrating on the California budget, the reason he claimed for avoiding, er, I mean, missing, the Republic convention.