The votes are in, and the best sound-bite from the Democratic candidates’ debate last week belonged to Hillary Clinton. Not only was it the best retort of the night, it was perhaps the shortest sound-bite in presidential debate history.
We’re past the point where Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican heap can be explained by luck or a passing summer fling. No, it’s more than that, and Hillary Clinton and her advisers could learn a thing or two from how Trump is campaigning.
Say “risk communications,” and people usually think of crisis management: what to say when bad things happen. That’s one part of it. But there’s another side to risk communications that involves taking risk with intelligence and purpose. President Obama’s State of the Union address offers a great example.
A good leader learns from mistakes, especially those of his rivals. Jeb Bush is said to be preparing to release a decade of tax returns, intent on avoiding the mistake that helped sink Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
As the Obama campaign swept up the confetti from its victory party last November, observers cited the campaign’s superior technology as the key difference in the race. It was a highly sophisticated effort that involved identifying new voters and coaxing them to the polls – a relentless, data-driven process that mixed old-fashioned organizing with 21st-century […]
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton lashed out at a Republican Congressman during testimony about the attack on the U.S. mission in Bengazhi, Libya. She flashed her temper, produced a memorable sound bite for the media and won the day. Anger doesn’t always succeed as a communication tactic. But here are four rules for making it […]
The schoolhouse murders in Newtown, Connecticut, have renewed the debate on gun control in America. But that debate is happening without the main protagonist. The National Rifle Association, so persuasive and powerful in private, has been silent in public. It has been their strategy in the past, and it has worked. Will this time be […]
Following its sweeping defeat in the presidential election, the Republican Party is beginning a period of reflection and rebuilding. So far, this has played out on editorial pages and airwaves in predictable ways, as one Republican pundit squares off against another. But their familiar screeching and table-banging indicate things are not yet changing for the […]
A few months before the election, a senior Republican warned the GOP could lose the presidential race by a wide margin unless it moderated its stand on issues like climate change and immigration to appeal to independent voters. In the aftermath of Mitt Romney’s defeat, it looks like a prescient call. Except the official wasn’t […]
Presidential elections often produce useful communication lessons. Mitt Romney provided one in recent weeks as he struggled to address two big issues – his personal tax returns and Bain Capital’s jobs outsourcing. It’s an example of the risks that come with inauthentic communication.