The tin ear effect
It can trump the Icarus effect, I think.
Look, I'll admit it: I'm beginning to get a tad frustrated with the tone-deaf campaign instincts of my candidate. I still very much believe she's the better politician. But, jeez louise, does she have to both bear the unfair charge that she'll say and do anything to get the job and keep saying and doing all the wrong things? I've got my fingers crossed that she'll back down on this msnbc silliness. First of all, from a purely PR standpoint, no one likes angry women; not even other angry women (believe me when I say I know this one reeeeaaally well). Second, no matter how heartfelt, it looks like a flimsy excuse to dodge the debate (and she's a terrific debater). Third, this fuels the critics who ascribe McCain-like attributes to her; surely, a firm rebuke followed by graciousness would have played so much better.
And yeah, the campaign manager switch-out has really bad visuals. Nor is it necessary: we all knew post-Super Tuesday Feb was going to be a rough stretch for us. Not riding it out equably confers a degree of legitimacy that could start to spook the superdelegates. And where oh where is the guerrilla PR? The lighthearted "Obama 2016" bumperstickers? The confident assertion of the extraordinary and revolutionary quality of her candidacy? This campaign needn't have ceded the youth vote, had it been less worried about losing the over-30 white male vote that it never had anyway. I'll refrain from despair until after Ohio and Texas, but I fear the contest is very much an instantiation of the common gender dynamic when it comes to "leadership": substance and brains are no match for an overconfident man who looks good in a suit.
Look, I'll admit it: I'm beginning to get a tad frustrated with the tone-deaf campaign instincts of my candidate. I still very much believe she's the better politician. But, jeez louise, does she have to both bear the unfair charge that she'll say and do anything to get the job and keep saying and doing all the wrong things? I've got my fingers crossed that she'll back down on this msnbc silliness. First of all, from a purely PR standpoint, no one likes angry women; not even other angry women (believe me when I say I know this one reeeeaaally well). Second, no matter how heartfelt, it looks like a flimsy excuse to dodge the debate (and she's a terrific debater). Third, this fuels the critics who ascribe McCain-like attributes to her; surely, a firm rebuke followed by graciousness would have played so much better.
And yeah, the campaign manager switch-out has really bad visuals. Nor is it necessary: we all knew post-Super Tuesday Feb was going to be a rough stretch for us. Not riding it out equably confers a degree of legitimacy that could start to spook the superdelegates. And where oh where is the guerrilla PR? The lighthearted "Obama 2016" bumperstickers? The confident assertion of the extraordinary and revolutionary quality of her candidacy? This campaign needn't have ceded the youth vote, had it been less worried about losing the over-30 white male vote that it never had anyway. I'll refrain from despair until after Ohio and Texas, but I fear the contest is very much an instantiation of the common gender dynamic when it comes to "leadership": substance and brains are no match for an overconfident man who looks good in a suit.
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