You’ve probably heard the axiom: stay on message. It’s something we take very seriously here at RZC Impact. Before you can stay on message, however, you have to be in control of the message. Let’s take the debate on Health Care. Strictly speaking as someone who has worked in a Governor’s office, worked for a Congressman, and trained candidates running for federal office, the White House did not control the message. Instead, Congress, an institution no one trusts, crafted a very complex bill but that was not presented as Obama’s plan. We’ve yet to even see the White House plan.
Instead of speaking in broad philosophical terms, the President would have been better served to offer a specific plan. Instead, he opened the door for his critics to also speak in broad generalities. Because there was no specific plan, there were no specific facts to repudiate the generalities offered by his critics. I’m puzzled why they chose to begin a debate before they had a plan in place. Simply put, they did not control the message.
What can we learn from this? It’s important to remember that it only takes an audience a few seconds to judge your crediblity on an issue. If you are asked to speak on a topic, make sure you have the specifics in order otherwise you are likely to be viewed as suspect. That’s why I think the Members of Congress who have been advocating for a bill they admittedly haven’t read are running into such opposition. The audience senses they lack credibility because they aren’t schooled on the specifics and as a result, the crucial bond between speaker and audience is broken.
It’s something I call the “credibility connection” and once its broken, it is virtually impossible to get back.
