Dick Morris Interview
A couple days ago, I blogged about the Dick Morris segment on The O'Reilly Factor, Monday night. What made this interview noteworthy is that Dick Morris basically gave a free clinic on "debate framing" and how to "stay on message."
For those of you who've read Teaching Elephants to Talk -- or attended one of my campaign seminars -- Morris' tips will be "old-hat" to you. That's because if you've read the book, you already know "most battles are won before they're fought" -- and, as Sun Tzu wrote, "He who picks the terrain will win." You'll probably also remember me talking about "staying in your message box."
Framing the debate is a profound concept -- and as you'll see, it is a foreign concept to even Bill O'Reilly. Every candidate should be required to watch the tape, or at the very least, read the following excerpt:
DICK MORRIS, AUTHOR, "CONDI VS. HILLARY": ... I'll tell you what I tell clients when they get negative press. It isn't a question of whether it's positive or negative. That's what you're looking at, because you're a human being. But the question is what is it about? There is no such thing as a negative story about George Bush on Homeland Security. The more Ted Kennedy talks about overreaching executive authority, and NSA wiretaps, and Bush's extensive use of The Patriot Act, the more they're helping Bush, not hurting him.But the more you talk about.
O'REILLY: Why, why, why?
MORRIS: Because the public is overwhelmingly with George Bush on that issue. And the negative press coverage of The Times and everybody else can't change that. It's a 70-20 issue for Bush. And all they're doing is calling attention to it by the criticism.By the same token, there is no way that Bush will ever succeed if the articles are about healthcare, and the price of drugs, or with the environment or global warming.
O'REILLY: Oil prices.
MORRIS: Oil prices. Those are issues which are 20 to 70 for the Democrats. Politicians and journalists always overestimate whether the article is positive or negative. It doesn't matter. What matters is what the article is about, because every one of these issues has a built-in skew to one side or the other. And all that can happen is the issue gets more coverage or less coverage.And if the issue is a pro-Bush issue like Homeland Security, the more stink is raised about it, the better. Which should Bush rather have, a negative story that says the 2,100th soldier died in Iraq, which is a tough story and hurts him, or he wiretapped al Qaeda, which is a terrific story for him. Even if they're both negative stories, the one hurts and the other helps him.
O'REILLY: Interesting. So when they attacked me in the war on Christmas, I actually won because.
MORRIS: You won.
O'REILLY: Most people don't want Christmas denigrated. So the more they attack me, the more I look good.
MORRIS: Precisely.
O'REILLY: You know, you're brilliant, because I never figured that out at all. I'm going, oh, what are they doing here? All right, so Bush wins today when Kennedy goes after Bush through Alito.
MORRIS: Great day for Alito because Kennedy should have talked about abortion, about abortion cases of rape or incest, the issues where the Democrats have an edge. Instead he talked about homeland security and the government overreaching in the rights of citizens where the Republicans have an edge because of the war on terror.
O'REILLY: Mm-hmm.
MORRIS: Every issue has a built-in skew...
For those of you who've read Teaching Elephants to Talk -- or attended one of my campaign seminars -- Morris' tips will be "old-hat" to you. That's because if you've read the book, you already know "most battles are won before they're fought" -- and, as Sun Tzu wrote, "He who picks the terrain will win." You'll probably also remember me talking about "staying in your message box."
Framing the debate is a profound concept -- and as you'll see, it is a foreign concept to even Bill O'Reilly. Every candidate should be required to watch the tape, or at the very least, read the following excerpt:
DICK MORRIS, AUTHOR, "CONDI VS. HILLARY": ... I'll tell you what I tell clients when they get negative press. It isn't a question of whether it's positive or negative. That's what you're looking at, because you're a human being. But the question is what is it about? There is no such thing as a negative story about George Bush on Homeland Security. The more Ted Kennedy talks about overreaching executive authority, and NSA wiretaps, and Bush's extensive use of The Patriot Act, the more they're helping Bush, not hurting him.But the more you talk about.
O'REILLY: Why, why, why?
MORRIS: Because the public is overwhelmingly with George Bush on that issue. And the negative press coverage of The Times and everybody else can't change that. It's a 70-20 issue for Bush. And all they're doing is calling attention to it by the criticism.By the same token, there is no way that Bush will ever succeed if the articles are about healthcare, and the price of drugs, or with the environment or global warming.
O'REILLY: Oil prices.
MORRIS: Oil prices. Those are issues which are 20 to 70 for the Democrats. Politicians and journalists always overestimate whether the article is positive or negative. It doesn't matter. What matters is what the article is about, because every one of these issues has a built-in skew to one side or the other. And all that can happen is the issue gets more coverage or less coverage.And if the issue is a pro-Bush issue like Homeland Security, the more stink is raised about it, the better. Which should Bush rather have, a negative story that says the 2,100th soldier died in Iraq, which is a tough story and hurts him, or he wiretapped al Qaeda, which is a terrific story for him. Even if they're both negative stories, the one hurts and the other helps him.
O'REILLY: Interesting. So when they attacked me in the war on Christmas, I actually won because.
MORRIS: You won.
O'REILLY: Most people don't want Christmas denigrated. So the more they attack me, the more I look good.
MORRIS: Precisely.
O'REILLY: You know, you're brilliant, because I never figured that out at all. I'm going, oh, what are they doing here? All right, so Bush wins today when Kennedy goes after Bush through Alito.
MORRIS: Great day for Alito because Kennedy should have talked about abortion, about abortion cases of rape or incest, the issues where the Democrats have an edge. Instead he talked about homeland security and the government overreaching in the rights of citizens where the Republicans have an edge because of the war on terror.
O'REILLY: Mm-hmm.
MORRIS: Every issue has a built-in skew...
posted by Matt Lewis at 1:39 PM
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