Being Joe Biden
by Patrick Ruffini :: January 31st, 2007 10:47 pmHere’s what I love about primary campaigns. And midterm elections. And political spectacles where the action isn’t focused on a single person.
You get all comers. You get to see virtually every type of political strategy and persona in action. Everyone gets their day in the sun. Including the kooks and whackjobs.
I am wondering whether Joe Biden doesn’t belong in that category with Dennis Kucinich.
Modern communications strategy tells us that brevity and clarity is everything. A number of people have questioned whether this model is outdated; whether new media gives political leaders the opportunity to engage in a more fulsome dialogue with voters. (There’s a lot of talk about conversation these days.) Don’t we want Presidential candidates who just talk and let the chips fall where they may?
I am certainly sympathetic to these calls … but Joe Biden gives the old school communicators about a century’s worth of ammo in defense of scripting and message discipline. Joe Biden is what happens when politicians just talk. Even in his apology he talks himself into a hole:
Obama, Biden said, “is probably the most exciting candidate the Democratic or Republican parties have produced since I’ve been around. He’s fresh, new, smart, insightful. Lightning in a jar.”
Exciting. Fresh. Smart. New. Insightful. Lightning in a jar. Six ways of saying the same thing. Excuse me Senator, but if Barack Obama is all these things, why don’t you get out of the race and endorse him now?
Joe Biden learned public speaking in the school of hard knocks, and his presence on the public stage is testament to his perseverence. But he has the same problem Kerry had: an inability to distill his thoughts clearly. Why say in six words what you can say in three hundred?
Incidentally, he has the same problem on his Web site. Why have one photo of the candidate in blue shirt and navy blazer when you can have three? All of them probably taken this morning:
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Tagged: 2008 
joe biden strategy
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