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Mark Shields is a nationally known columnist and commentator. |
Democrats' memo
WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Now it is the Democratic presidential candidates' chance to listen to the advice from someone who has spent days and weeks listening to them.
Do not even consider answering questions about your campaign.
The legendary political reporter-columnist Mary McGrory astutely observed about her Washington press colleagues, "Scratch a scribe in this town, and you will find a campaign manager."
Candidates and reporters are the only Americans who think it's even remotely interesting how many volunteers the campaign has, or the new media strategy the candidate has, or what his internal polls or phone banks show.
Talking about your campaign or your candidacy may fascinate you or even your interviewer, but not voters.
"Do not talk about your grass seed, talk about my lawn."
That formulation comes from veteran media strategist-writer Dan Payne, who explains: "John Edwards and Howard Dean both sell lawns better than John Kerry does. "
As an example, Payne offers the following: "If Dad loses his job, Mom's battle with breast cancer should not add bankruptcy to the family's emotional stress. That is why lifetime health coverage is vital. It is a family value that every family needs."
No Senate bill number or clever name, no co-sponsorship, no congressional votes. Remember, people want to know how what you will do will change their lives for the better, not how many times you voted in committee to amend the Republican plan.
Americans are, by actual measurement, the most optimistic of all people. Be optimistic.
Since Ike, the nation has had only two presidents who were elected and who served two terms: Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Bill Clinton.
The Republican cut taxes, tripled the national debt and presided over an era of improved economic prosperity; the Democrat increased taxes, balanced the federal budget and presided over an era of improved economic prosperity.
What the two leaders shared in common was an invincible and contagious optimism.
Yes, the 2004 presidential election will be a referendum on the record of the Republican incumbent, but Americans want more than a litany of Bush's failures and errors. They want and expect optimism in their national leaders.
The political press is a constituency that can be -- and expects to be -- courted by you.
Why, if the press so loves the underdog David against the powerful Goliath story, has there been so much press criticism of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean?
In part, because Dean "peaked" too soon. He was on the covers of Time and Newsweek last summer, which meant that for five months Dean was the front-runner with a target on his back for criticism from his rivals and intense scrutiny by the press.
But Howard Dean paid the price for not courting the political press as a self-important constituency. There was even published press coverage of Dean's " failure" during interviews to ask the interviewer any questions about what he or she thought about the campaign. See the McGrory Rule above.
A hint: Back when I was managing campaigns, I always urged my candidate to follow the "Deer Park" example.
When John Kennedy was introduced to writer Norman Mailer, instead of commenting on Mailer's best-known work," The Naked and the Dead," Kennedy told him how much he had enjoyed Mailer's later and less-known work," Deer Park." You guessed it. Norman Mailer was so impressed he told everyone he met what an intelligent man JFK was.
A political reporter congratulated, before an interview, by the candidate for the reporter's long-forgotten piece on adoption or the metric system has a better chance of writing a favorable piece.
Heed the counsel of former party chairman and Democratic wise-man Robert S. Strauss, who said:
"It takes a lot of guts to stick your neck out and run for any public office. But the only thing that's tougher than announcing for office is withdrawing from a race, because when you drop out, you are saying that you are quitting and that you're beaten."
