How GW Should Win Friends and Influence People
By Doug Edelman (04/23/06)
With his approval ratings in a nosedive, and lawmakers of his own party scrambling to distance themselves from him, it is time for President Bush to take a page from his predecessor and "reinvent" himself. Given the recent White House Shuffle, perhaps this process may be the opportunity for a new beginning.
If I may take a stab at playing Dale Carnegie – I would like to offer some advice for Mr. Bush if he intends to salvage his presidency and legacy.
You Can't Please Everyone!
The more you try to accommodate everyone, the more you find that you please no-one. Your approval drop is not indicative of a wholesale leftward shift in large numbers of people… it is instead reflective of your slipping from your pedestal in the eyes of your core constituency – the conservatives. By moving to appease the left, you've moved to alienate the right.
Give Allegiance to Your Allies, and Adversity to Your Adversaries!
Hold true to core principles. Be willing to stand and fight for your values and expect the rhetorical onslaught. Respond aggressively and promptly. Do not surrender the battle for the hearts and minds of the people just because the loud voices of the oppositional press keep grinding at you. Learn the art of counter-offensive.
Know that you will make enemies. You can't effectively address the massive public concern over illegal immigration, for example, without ticking off those who profit by their presence. You can't cozy up to Vincente Fox without alienating your own citizens. You must KNOW what's right, DO what's right, EXPLAIN WHY it's right… then let the chips fall where they may. In all likelihood, you'll come out ahead!
Be Purpose-Oriented in Your Appointments!
Even the perception of cronyism is damaging, but when those old buddies in these high visibility appointments turn out to have risen beyond the level of their incompetence – all the friendship and loyalty in the world isn't going to salvage a bad appointment. You must seek and appoint only those COMPETENT to the TASK.
The Meiers nomination should have taught you that it is better to be openly conservative than to try to pander to both sides. It wasn't the Left that killed that nomination, it was your own base.
For six years, you have surrounded yourself with advisors who collectively were clueless to predict or to manage public opinion. On many occasions you were blindsided with public reactions that should have been easily predicted, and there was complete failure to communicate effectively with the American People.
It is time to bring on a Press Secretary who can connect with the public and build bridges of understanding. One who can take the "slings and arrows" without being intimidated, and can firmly present the rationale behind Administration positions, and give reasoned and lucid responses to objections.
Get a New Attitude!
The President (and all of American Government, for that matter) is designed to rule "with the consent of the people". While the system isn't perfect, and the judiciary is particularly egregious with it's attempts to circumvent this principle, the haughty "I'm in charge and I make the decisions" attitude needs to change. While it is true that the President does indeed wield a significant amount of authority – it is wiser to trust the American People to be capable of understanding and supporting your purposes, when well explained, than to simply bulldoze your plan thru with a "my way or the highway" approach. This engenders resistance. Even when you are right, you appear wrong, haughty, and arrogant. When you are wrong, you appear foolish, if not despotic.
Learn from your mistakes! The Dubai Port Deal was a debacle of your own making. In hindsight, the deal may not have posed a security risk – and did offer a number of benefits to our interests. But when the Administration had already miserably failed to communicate adequately the benefits and the reasons to support the deal (and to explain the security issues), you took the very worst possible approach as your Plan B. You pulled out the cannon – the threat of your very first veto! If DPW didn't pull out on their own and had it come to such a showdown, you probably would have been overridden… forever crippling the Lame Duck into instant quadriplegia. If you had prevailed, it would have been no better as you would forever be seen as the president of "My way or the highway!" "What I say, goes!" and "Because I said so!" You are not King George. Stop looking like you think you are!
Pop the Bubble!
It has long been known you don't read the papers, watch the news or surf the Internet. As such you have been perhaps rightly described as being "in a bubble". It would be wise to become intimately familiar with both the pontifications of the Mainstream Media, and with the pulse of your core support, the rightwing blogosphere and talk radio. Many times excellent and timely advice was available to you on the air and on the net, if you had simply chosen to look and listen. You should avail yourself of this resource. You must win back the trust and confidence of the right if you are to have any further ability to be an effectual Chief Executive.
Listen to Your Base!
Mr. President, the Conservatives of this nation are ready to leap at any hope of a real representation of their interests. Don't be afraid to BE a conservative. Reagan is beloved and eulogized for his consistent devotion to his core conservative principles. Your father is remembered with a certain distaste for his failure to do likewise. Your legacy is in your own hands… but more importantly, to a large extent our nation is storm tossed, and you are at the wheel of the Ship of State. Where will you steer?
Copyright © 2006 by Doug Edelman
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