Wednesday, February 15, 2006
I Cringed
Politicians aren't perfect -- they are human. I understand that. They make mistakes, some of which are reasonable and some of which are not. Cheney shot his friend and took responsibility for it. Shooting his friend was a mistake. I understand that such mistakes are possible when hunting. What I don't understand is why Cheney's staff and the White House dealt with the situation so poorly. These are political professionals! They should know how to deal with these kinds of situations.
The incident occurred over the weekend. Why on earth didn't someone leak it to the papers immediately? If news organizations printed the story over the weekend, no one would read the papers and the story would be killed. Instead, they waited until Sunday night so the story would run in Monday's paper. This is when the most people read the paper. This is how a story that shouldn't really have any bearing on Cheney's political status blew up into a huge controversy.
Now I understand that Cheney may have been more concerned with the health of his friend than quelling the political fire. Indeed this is exactly the story his staff in telling the press. While that is commendable, Cheney has a huge political staff, many of whom specialize in communications. Someone in this army of staffers should have had the foresight to take the appropriate action to put out the inevitable political fire.
What is even more surprising, however, is how Bush's communications department fumbled this story. Scott McClellan, not well known for his jokes and often merely a deadpan mouthpiece for the administration, attempted to diffuse the situation with a joke. Wearing a bright orange tie, McClellan quipped he had worn the tie that day to avoid getting shot by Cheney. It's actually a pretty funny joke, but because McClellan isn't necessarily known for his humor and the inappropriateness and proximity of the events he made light of, it was just a terrible idea - in terms of communications strategy - to tell such a joke.
The Joke, waiting to leak the story, the actual shooting in the first place. Come on people. You are supposed to be better than this. Even when I disagreed with the policy stances of this White House, I was usually in awe of its political strategy. Perhaps that awe was misplaced... I guess we'll see.
The incident occurred over the weekend. Why on earth didn't someone leak it to the papers immediately? If news organizations printed the story over the weekend, no one would read the papers and the story would be killed. Instead, they waited until Sunday night so the story would run in Monday's paper. This is when the most people read the paper. This is how a story that shouldn't really have any bearing on Cheney's political status blew up into a huge controversy.
Now I understand that Cheney may have been more concerned with the health of his friend than quelling the political fire. Indeed this is exactly the story his staff in telling the press. While that is commendable, Cheney has a huge political staff, many of whom specialize in communications. Someone in this army of staffers should have had the foresight to take the appropriate action to put out the inevitable political fire.
What is even more surprising, however, is how Bush's communications department fumbled this story. Scott McClellan, not well known for his jokes and often merely a deadpan mouthpiece for the administration, attempted to diffuse the situation with a joke. Wearing a bright orange tie, McClellan quipped he had worn the tie that day to avoid getting shot by Cheney. It's actually a pretty funny joke, but because McClellan isn't necessarily known for his humor and the inappropriateness and proximity of the events he made light of, it was just a terrible idea - in terms of communications strategy - to tell such a joke.
The Joke, waiting to leak the story, the actual shooting in the first place. Come on people. You are supposed to be better than this. Even when I disagreed with the policy stances of this White House, I was usually in awe of its political strategy. Perhaps that awe was misplaced... I guess we'll see.
