Book Review:
Buck Up, Suck Up and Come Back When You ....... Foul Up
by James Carville and Paul Begala
The maneuvers of these two veteran political campaigners got Bill Clinton to the White House, and kept him there almost despite himself, as improbable as that seemed at some times.
Their book is based on these rules:
- Don't ever quit
- Kiss ass
(This is not just about smoodging to people in power. It is also about the ability to get other people to do what you need them to do.)
- Kick ass
Lawrence Spivak, the long time host of the American show Meet The Press, said his method was simple: you learn as much as you can about your guest and his or her position on the issue. Then you take the other side.
- Frame the debate
Think of the decision point as a one foot square frame, and the choice itself as a wall size mural. Your job is to place that frame on the one square foot that's most favourable to you, and least favourable to your opponent.
First impressions do matter, more. With so much information around, reporters are becoming repeaters. "You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube."
George W. Bush leaked a proposed tax plan to reporters on the basis that they didn't interview anyone critical of it for 24 hours. The net effect was that he got continuing good coverage.
- Understand the difference between strategy and tactics
At the start of the Carter vs Reagan election, Reagan asked "Are you better off than you were four years ago?
There's the objective, strategy and then tactics.
Set the objective high: not to get to the grand final, but to win it.
Don't confuse strategy with tactics: Clinton's strategy was: Change vs more of the same.
Keep going back to the fundamentals of your strategy, think about what you want to communicate. It's too easy to think: "what am I going to wear today?" rather than 'why am I alive?"
- Be open
There are damn few real secrets in life that deserve the energy you need to use to keep them secrets.
In the information age, trying to hoard and control information is like peeing in the wind.
If there's something bad to be said about you - say it yourself.
When you hear something bad from a third person, there's often schadenfreude, taking pleasure from someone else's pain. When you hear it from the person directly, there's often more sympathy.
- Know how to communicate
The Theory of Rational Ignorance explains why, with so much information coming at us, we have to be selective about what counts.
People who are ignorant about your passion aren't stupid; in many ways they can be smarter than you. You've got to reach the rationally ignorant, and convince them to alter their filter enough to engage with your topic.
"People are busy. They have short attention spans. Telling a story, being brief, using emotion, saying something no-one else can, keeping your message relevant to your audience and repeating it until it penetrates will make you a better communicator.”
Tell a story. A good story has a sympathetic hero, and unsympathetic villain. It has conflict, which creates drama, then resolution.
Be brief. (see the sound bite material)
Be emotional. Personalise the story, appeal to feelings.
Be unique. Read your message aloud: if your competition can deliver it with equal credibility, it's not a unique message. Focus on the unique message, that's also a deal closer. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi both have one calorie a can: Diet Coke's ad was "Just for the taste of it" - pushing the key distinction: Coke tastes better.
Be relevant. The "So what?" test. Make your message relevant to the needs, concerns and dreams of your audience, or your audience will tune you out.
Repeat your message relentlessly. In real estate it is: location, location, location. In communication it is: repetition, repetition, repetition.
- Work your ass off
- Turn weakness into strength
The pair worked on the 1984 Senate campaign for Lloyd Doggett against Bob Kreuger who described himself as a 'big leaguer', and dismissed his opponent as a 'little leaguer'. Doggett took a baseball bat and cap to every Little League field he could draw a camera. . He vowed to fight for all the Little Leaguers in Taxas against all the big-shot, big-league, big money in Washington. "We don't need more Washington thinking in Texas, we need more Texas thinking in Washington," was his catchcry.
- Be nimble
They emphasise speed: Do something.....now! If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't work, try something else.
"There are risks and costs to a program of action," JFK said, "but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction"
Often speed correlates to excellence. Sometimes speed means errors, often it gives a sense of urgency and importance to the job, reducing errors.
General Patton: "The object of war is not to die for your country. It's to make the other poor son of a bitch die for his country."
Carville and Begala say: The object of a campaign is not merely to answer all your opponent's attacks. It's to make the opponent go crazy trying to answer all of your attacks.
Sometimes counterattacking works: In the fight between Ford and Firestone following accidents with four wheel drive vehicles, the tyre company told a congressional committee: "The loss of tread or air in a tyre shouldn't cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle; the driver should be able to pull over, not roll over."
- Know how to recover when you really screw up
- Know what to do when you win
Never fight a battle you're not prepared to win. They call it the 'Gus Factor'. Gus, the dog liked to chase cars, then one day he caught one, or it caught him. He wasn't prepared to get what he wanted.
- They make some good points about key messages and soundbites:
According to Kiku Adato in the 1968 presidential election the average news soundbite was 42.3 seconds. By the 2000 campaign the average sound bite was 7.8 seconds.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is a classic soundbite.
They say that Ross Perot had 'bumper sticker soundbites".
Crafting soundbites:
The human mind retains information better if it is presented in certain ways. Contrasting pairs, for example, are memorable: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
Lists of three also work well: Veni, Vedi, Vici
I've heard people call these the double whammy and triple whammy.
Surprise them: an element of surprise, and especially self deprecating humour work very well. An English anti fox hunting activist said of Labour's softer than expected new laws: Call me Mr Cynical, but I smell fudge in the air.
Keep it simple: Be ruthless when you edit, trim trim trim. Keep it short and simple.
Some more examples:
Give me liberty or give me death Patrick Henry
Such is life Ned Kelly
We have nothing to fear but fear itself F. D. Roosevelt
That woman who knew that I had dyslexia - I never interviewed her George W. Bush
Golf is a game of luck. The more I practice, the luckier I get Ben Hogan
The graveyards are filled with indispensable men Charles de Gaulle
Change is certain; progress is not E.H. Carr
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
Carville and Begala's final thought: Resting on your laurels is overrated. All that happens is that your ass gets fat and your laurels get flat.
Summarized by Bob Hughes |
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