staying on message, and more

The other day I attended a meeting for learning how to talk about a particular initiative that will be on the ballot here in Washington State in November. It was a lot of fun. Of course the idea is, when you are talking about the initiative to focus on the 3 most significant points. Always stay on message. Don’t go into the opponent's "box". It was fun practicing this. It’s the thing that people do on tv and radio all the time when being interviewed. If they don’t want to answer a particular question, then that’s no problem. They just go around the question, and turn the conversation back to the message.

A few of the folks in the training group, however, said that politicians not answering questions in interviews is one of the things that frustrates them greatly. And/or the idea that the media’s questions are often manipulative. I feel the same way.

So, I would add a few other points to being good at explaining or defending an issue - besides just staying on message. The first and most important thing would be for the interviewee to be honest, caring, and respectful of the other party. Secondly, they ought to know the issue as well as possible. And third, stay on message.

I watched an interview Mitt gave on a PBS show some weeks ago. He is polished. He does a great job staying on message, and dealing with prickly questions. He also has the ability to stay posed and in control during an interview. Go Mitt go!