Atomic Nerds

So it seems the White House response to lions and plummeting polls and ship-jumping Democrats, oh my, is going to be to revamp communications. In general I think their taking a look at how they communicate with the public would be a good idea, especially when it comes to replacing the smarmy little wormsucker currently communicating via making childish jokes ripped off from others in order to take potshots at political opponents that aren’t even holding any kind of office, but it turns out that’s not what they have in mind. What they have in mind is having Obama talk even more, because Christ knows he doesn’t do enough speeches.

The messaging adjustments are the result of an end-of-the-year analysis in which White House advisers said the president’s communications team had not taken the initiative often enough and had allowed drawn-out debates in Congress, and relentless criticism by Republicans, to drown out his message.

“It was clear that too often we didn’t have the ball — Congress had the ball in terms of driving the message,” communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. “In 2010, the president will constantly be doing high-profile things to be the person driving the narrative.”

Here’s a narrative: having debates is part of the function of Congress, and being the opposition to things they are opposed to is the function of minority parties. The Republicans are ALLOWED to vocally disagree with Democrats, and with the administration. They wouldn’t be doing their jobs properly if they weren’t. The same thing was true of Democrats from 2000-2008, however convenient it would have been for Bush and the Republicans if they’d just rolled over and gone along with things.

Here’s something they’re desperately trying to leave out of the narrative, which is that there’s a Democrat in the White House and a huge majority of Democrats in Congress. If nothing is getting done, it’s not because of Republicans, it’s because of Democrats. And if they’re spending all this time debating rather than delivering a nice tied up package of hopefully changed health care and job stimulus and budget reform, it’s because they’re having a really hard time coming up with something that a sufficient number of them can vote for without getting booted the hell out of their jobs this fall- which is the fault of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and if he wanted “his” Congress to deliver “his” agenda, Barack Obama. If you want to lead, you have to lead, not just stand at the head of the parade.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure that they understand that.

First, they said, is a return to the disciplined messaging that was a hallmark of the 2008 campaign, in which unhelpful themes were filtered out in favor of topics that advanced the candidate’s goals. In the White House, they said, that will mean a tighter focus on Obama’s commitment to the economy and jobs for average Americans. “The threshold for things he will go out and talk about is higher,” one senior aide said.

EARTH TO OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: THE CAMPAIGN IS OVER. THE CAMPAIGN IS WHAT YOU DID TO GET THE JOB, NOT THE JOB ITSELF. WHAT WORKED FOR CAMPAIGNING WILL NOT WORK FOR GOVERNING.

In order to accomplish a policy agenda, you have to legislate, not message. It is IMPOSSIBLE to turn to Congress and go, “Deliver for me comprehensive health care reform that eases the burden on the American taxpayer and creates a stronger safety net for the people currently falling through the cracks, and do not let the special interests have a say.”, and have that actually occur. In order for Congress to legislate policy, they have to come up with a big passel of specific little laws written in boring language, and they have to get a whole bunch of people to agree to it, even a bunch of the people wearing the same initial on their team letter jackets. Negotiating is part of the legislative branch of our system, and like it or not, lobbyists are a huge part of the negotiation system. You can’t just say “let’s not do that anymore”, you have to actually wade in and provide a more convincing alternative, as well as convincing consequences for falling into old bad habits.

This is something that Lyndon Johnson, a Democratic president that actually DID accomplish a lot of sweeping social legislation, understood- he was a veteran of twisting arms and scratching backs on the floors of Congress and understood on a deep level how to get his priorities accomplished come hell or high water. So, for that matter, did George W. Bush- who accomplished a lot more with a much smaller majority during a similar period in office. I don’t approve of much of what either man did, but the fact remains they knew how to do it, and it wasn’t “give more speeches”.

What I think the administration doesn’t understand is that even with the abysmal state of the public education system, the American people understand that there’s a big difference between what the President says and what Congress actually does- and that it’s Congress’s job to actually do the doing when it comes to domestic policy and the President’s to attempt to lead the agenda. It’s not as though we don’t have a long-established cultural tradition of ingrained skepticism of politicians- or that we haven’t been through coming up on ten years of a deep-seated contempt for Congress, as reflected in the polls. It wasn’t just George W. Bush that caused that skepticism, and being not-Bush won’t change it.

All the news that comes in from reporting on the actual bills, and the results of them, suggests ugly legislative sausage-making on a grand scale, which feeds very strongly into that pre-existing suspicion. If the public- and for that matter Congressional Democrats- are disagreeing with the message, it’s not because of Republicans and it’s not because of the length of the debate. It’s because the message doesn’t match observable reality. Reiterating the message more and more often in ever more querulous tones won’t restore credibility, just continue to reinforce the impression of an administration not truly in control and not understanding that it’s not.

Campaigns are about convincing that you will do, and do well, enough to get a chance to do it. Governing is about doing. Talking about what you want to do counts for just as much as wishing on a star if there’s never any do, and being the head of state of the United States of America contains no tasks other than press conferences that don’t require a lot of effort. This is the difference, and the public understands it well.

Posted current events, Ranting |