Contemplating Your Navel
March 23, 2012 - by
Back in 1976 when Ronald Reagan was running in the North Carolina Primary, Arthur Finkelstein (Reagan’s pollster) hammered into my head the importance of time in campaigns, saying a hundred times, Campaigns have three resources: People, money and time. You can hire more people and raise more money but you can’t make one second more time.
And that’s one of the oddest facts about a political campaign – it starts and ends then vanishes.
I don’t recall exactly when George Holding announced but it was around August 1st – which meant he had exactly 281 days to the election on May 8 and every lost day can never be regained – and that’s the one thing I see campaigns mismanage most: Time.
Negative attacks are an example.
Paul Coble launched the first negative attack – Coble’s radio ad against George Holding – of the Congressional campaign two weeks ago.
That meant George Holding had 9 weeks – until May – to debunk Coble’s attack and if he sat contemplating his navel for two weeks he’d lose 25% of his time.
This week George Holding criticized Paul Coble for supporting ‘unfunded liabilities’ as a Wake County Commissioner. Coble immediately hollered, That’s not true. I never supported an unfunded liability – which leaves Holding 7 weeks to prove he’s right and Coble’s wrong.
Now, 7 weeks may sound like a lot of time but when you’re trying to prove to 60,000 voters you’re right while your opponent’s hollering bloody murder, screaming you’re dead wrong – it’s not.
Everyday George Holding isn’t explaining that Paul Coble’s dodge on unfunded liabilities is the same dodge the Washington politicians use when they talk about Medicare and Social Security’s unfunded liabilities is a lost day.
That’s a reality people who’ve been through political campaigns live with and never escape – but, for other people, it’s an oddly elusive fact.
Businessmen, for example, face all kinds of deadlines. But they hardly ever face a deadline when their world ends.
On August 1 a businessman may set a goal to sell more widgets than his competition by May 8 – and he may fail by 5%. But the result isn’t Armageddon. Instead, he goes to work to outsell his competition in the next business cycle.
But in a campaign if you’re 5% short in the primary you don’t pass go, you don’t move on, you’re done.
And that’s why time mismanagement can be lethal to a candidate.
So, if you’ve got to answer an attack do it quickly.
And if you’ve got a message to get to voters – like proving Paul Coble supported unfunded liabilities just like the Washington politicians – don’t spend two weeks contemplating your navel.
Contemplating Your Navel
March 23, 2012/
Back in 1976 when Ronald Reagan was running in the North Carolina Primary, Arthur Finkelstein (Reagan’s pollster) hammered into my head the importance of time in campaigns, saying a hundred times, Campaigns have three resources: People, money and time. You can hire more people and raise more money but you can’t make one second more time.
And that’s one of the oddest facts about a political campaign – it starts and ends then vanishes.
I don’t recall exactly when George Holding announced but it was around August 1st – which meant he had exactly 281 days to the election on May 8 and every lost day can never be regained – and that’s the one thing I see campaigns mismanage most: Time.
Negative attacks are an example.
Paul Coble launched the first negative attack – Coble’s radio ad against George Holding – of the Congressional campaign two weeks ago.
That meant George Holding had 9 weeks – until May – to debunk Coble’s attack and if he sat contemplating his navel for two weeks he’d lose 25% of his time.
This week George Holding criticized Paul Coble for supporting ‘unfunded liabilities’ as a Wake County Commissioner. Coble immediately hollered, That’s not true. I never supported an unfunded liability – which leaves Holding 7 weeks to prove he’s right and Coble’s wrong.
Now, 7 weeks may sound like a lot of time but when you’re trying to prove to 60,000 voters you’re right while your opponent’s hollering bloody murder, screaming you’re dead wrong – it’s not.
Everyday George Holding isn’t explaining that Paul Coble’s dodge on unfunded liabilities is the same dodge the Washington politicians use when they talk about Medicare and Social Security’s unfunded liabilities is a lost day.
That’s a reality people who’ve been through political campaigns live with and never escape – but, for other people, it’s an oddly elusive fact.
Businessmen, for example, face all kinds of deadlines. But they hardly ever face a deadline when their world ends.
On August 1 a businessman may set a goal to sell more widgets than his competition by May 8 – and he may fail by 5%. But the result isn’t Armageddon. Instead, he goes to work to outsell his competition in the next business cycle.
But in a campaign if you’re 5% short in the primary you don’t pass go, you don’t move on, you’re done.
And that’s why time mismanagement can be lethal to a candidate.
So, if you’ve got to answer an attack do it quickly.
And if you’ve got a message to get to voters – like proving Paul Coble supported unfunded liabilities just like the Washington politicians – don’t spend two weeks contemplating your navel.