USA Today is reporting that in a new poll conducted this week USA Today Report
only 40% of registered Republicans know that Joe Biden‘s name was mentioned in the call with the Ukrainian President, versus 85% of Democrats and 60% of independents. We are two weeks in to the revelation of this, those numbers should be higher.
I wrote an earlier diary Message Discipline #1 in which I explained that this is a critical time for dominating the narrative and maintaining focus on the evidence in hand, that being the damning language in the phone call “transcript”. Republicans may appear haphazard in their handling of the messaging so far, yet they are creating enough smoke that it’s already beginning to confuse the public on the salient facts. This is a simple story at its core, but it becomes vulnerable if it is allowed to veer too far over in to things like the whistleblower testimony where there are multiple angles to attack available to Republicans.
My background is in business marketing. I founded four separate companies over the past 30 years. As the CEO/Founder it fell to me to craft the company’s important messaging for product introductions and press releases. I currently operate a marketing consulting firm and one of the most valuable services we provide our clients is guidance on how to clearly communicate with its customers in a way to secure the most impact, to cut through the noise. I see voters as consumers of policy, they are the Democratic Party’s customers.
Republicans surely have their conservative think tank messaging machines working overtime on a response to undermine the credibility of every argument the Democrats might present. Trump is putting together a war room just for impeachment. Remember, all they need is to create doubt in the mind of the public, they don’t have to prove anything. The burden of proof is on the Democrats and since they can’t provide unassailable proof on everything, their best card is the call “transcript”. As Republicans have demonstrated time and again, they are very good at dominating the narrative and molding public opinion. (As Obama found out with the Affordable Care Act for example). They are not burdened by the need to win the argument with the facts, or even with what is true.
Here’s what Democrats need to do right away in my professional opinion:
1. Run informational public service ads on television and social media with someone actually reading the most important pieces of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. Include damning video of Pompeo’s denial that he was aware of it.
2. Pick a main spokesperson, a staffer with great communication skills to have daily press briefings for the purpose of updating bills that Congress is working on and to be able to push back on the latest attempts by the White House and its surrogates. Nancy Pelosi should appear rarely to maximize her gravitas. Get your first string messengers out to the news outlets for interviews. Forget the egos.
Democrats in Congress must work quickly, the window is closing for their inherent advantage provided by the surprise of moving quickly toward impeachment