A Tipping Point with the Obama Charisma?
5th August 2009
While I have great respect for President Obama’s many and various political skills, I’ve never thought that he is a Great Communicator. He’s effective, competent, in the game, he plays his position, Pick Your Metaphor, but he’s not Great. He does not run circles around his opponents with communication skill, but instead with political skill. For my money, he’s much more like George W. Bush in that balance between communication and political skill. He accomplishes most of his goals through politics, not communication. He gets the votes, not with talk, but with deals.
Of course, I’m completely wrong in this evaluation. Everyone knows that Mr. Obama is one of the most gifted communicators to ever occupy the White House. Okay. Then explain all this to me.
His main economic advisors, Mr. Geithner and Mr. Summers, are going on TV and declaring that higher taxes for more citizens is possible. Mr. Obama put his own foot in his own mouth with ill-considered remarks on the Henry Gates case, thereby stepping all over his health care reform message (man, is that an interesting mixed metaphor – foot in mouth, stepping on itself). The White House has gotten itself fully engaged on the extremist “Birther” claims and is giving longer legs to a short issue. Mr. Obama talks tough about health care reform deadlines, then let’s them drop, and says the deadlines aren’t important. His spokesman, Mr. Gibbs, claims that those who disagree in town hall meetings about health care reform don’t worry the White House because they are just manufactured anger.
Where’s the communication skill in all of this? In all of these cases the deliberate action of the Administration has created counterarguing, distraction, and confusion. The Administration cannot shut up and maintain message discipline, apparently from the President down to his advisors. Geithner and Summers should have been smart enough to never talk publicly about tax increases. Gibbs should be smart enough to not dismiss controversy as “manufactured.” Obama should have known to not say a word about Henry Gates during that health care reform press conference.
The lack of discipline, focus, and strategy here is obvious, to me at any rate. It’s one thing to be embroiled in the normal to and fro of politics as a President moves his agenda. The mere presence of disagreement is not a bad thing or even an avoidable thing. People disagree on ways and means and goals. Action will produce conflict.
What I’m arguing here is that the Administration is doing a poor communication job in executing its political action. It causes trouble where it did not have to cause trouble. It confronts small trouble and makes it bigger trouble that lasts longer.
The single most important communication skill the Administration should enact is – Silence. Just shut up. Speak only the messages you want in the public information marketplace. Maintain silence in the face of everything else unless you’ve got a fabulous strategic reason to speak.
Remember the Rule: All bad persuasion is sincere.
Right now, the Obama Administration is loudly and easily sincere.
Remember the Rule: More is the enemy of Less.
More communication and more persuasion merely provides your opponents more opportunities to resist, countermove, and fight. More persuasion often leads to more fighting rather than to attaining your goal.
Finally, remember the Rule: Power corrupts persuasion.
The people of the Administration now have power, a lot of power, compared to the days of running an election. Whatever skill everyone had as Great Communicators is slipping through the easy access to power. They are getting used to making a phone call or pressing a button or cutting a deal. Power beguiles as it weakens.