If gravity worked differently, this photo
might seem more realistic.
David Axelrod
describes what the president is doing on his jobs bill:
“The president has a package. The package works together. We need to do many things to get this economy moving and people back to work. Not just one thing,” David Axelrod said.
“We want them to act now on this package. We are not in negotiation to break up the package. And it’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving,” he said.
President Obama makes the case for his jobs bill:
I'm asking you to lift up your voices, not just here in Richmond—anybody watching, listening, following online, I want you to call, I want to email, I want you to Tweet. I want you to Fax, I want you to visit, I want you to Facebook.
Send a carrier pigeon.
I want you to tell your congressperson the time for gridlock and games is over, the time for action is now, the time to create jobs is now. Pass this bill!
If you want construction workers on the work site, pass this bill. If you want teachers in the classroom, pass this bill. If you want small business owners to hire new people, pass this bill. If you veterans to get their share of opportunity that they helped create, pass this bill. If you want a tax break, pass this bill.
Prove you will fight as hard for tax cuts for workers and middle-class people as you do for oil companies and rich folks. Pass this bill! Let's get something done.
Those messages were great. Simple, to the point, and an accurate reflection of the current state of affairs, which is that President Obama has put forward a plan, that Congress has yet to take action on the plan, and that until it does take action, President Obama will make his case to the public.
But even when it has a great story to tell, the White House isn't always so great at staying on message, and yes, the president is sometimes to blame. Yesterday, he said:
"Obviously, if they pass parts of it, I am not going to veto those parts," Obama said Monday during a roundtable with Hispanic journalists.
"I will sign it, but I will then say, give me the rest and I will keep on making that argument as long as the need is there to put people back to work the get the economy moving," he added.
Okay, that sounds reasonable. And honestly, if he were to be faced with that scenario, it might be totally sensible. But that's not the scenario he's facing. And addressing a hypothetical situation is not only a waste of time, it risks undercutting his own message, no matter how good his intentions may have been.
Another example: Gene Sperling made the same mistake earlier today, saying President Obama would prefer to pass the whole bill, but would accept a piecemeal approach:
If Obama were “presented with parts of his plan, his instinct would be not to reject things he favored but to come back and keep fighting and fighting to get the entire program,” Sperling said Tuesday.
If Obama were “presented with parts of his plan, his instinct would be not to reject things he favored but to come back and keep fighting and fighting to get the entire program,” Sperling said Tuesday.
[...] If Obama were “presented with parts of his plan, his instinct would be not to reject things he favored but to come back and keep fighting and fighting to get the entire program,” Sperling said Tuesday.
As with Obama's statement, Sperling's prediction might not be far off the mark if the right set of circumstances were to develop. But that's not the issue. The issue is that President Obama is pushing Congress to act on his proposal, and the success of that push requires relentless message discipline.
And addressing hypothetical scenarios is one of the easiest ways to step on your own story. Note that I'm not saying you need to be an absolutist about it. You can simply say a question is hypothetical and you're not going to address it unless the facts change.
Addressing hypotheticals can sometimes be fun, and it can be hard to resist the temptation to speculate on them, but if you want to be successful in communicating a consistent message, that's exactly what you have to do.