Posted Aug. 05, 2015, at 7:29 a.m.
Last modified Aug. 05, 2015, at 10:42 a.m.
Do not pay much attention to this week’s televised presidential debate. It has as much value as the sideshow on the carnival midway.
It is far too early for candidates to square off on the vital issues facing the nation.
This is the time in a campaign cycle for candidates to introduce themselves to voters and acquaint the public with their back-story. They cannot deliberate stands on issues until they have the credibility to be taken seriously.
Voters need to know them first. I believe that Donald Trump’s name recognition is a far greater factor to his early poll leads than anything he had said. Many valid candidates are in low single digits simply because only full-time political junkies know them.
This is a problem on both sides.
Jim Webb and Martin O’Malley both have impressive credentials but stand little chance in early Democratic primaries against the Hillary juggernaut because nobody outside their home states know them. Webb, a Vietnam veteran with Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart, is a former U.S. senator from Virginia and was Navy secretary, assistant defense secretary and counsel to the House Veterans Affairs Committee. O’Malley was a Baltimore city councilor and mayor during the renaissance of the city, Maryland governor and chaired the Democratic Governors Association.
Neither is in the headlines every day, so they fall back in the field. When they do get exposure, it is to answer questions about the frontrunner rather than to position themselves and their own unique approach to governing.
Media-feeding frenzy has forced a series of debates, none of which will be significant until closer to actual Election Day. Moreover, this August spectacle is something more appropriate for a New Hampshire town hall than a national audience.
In the process, lesser-known but well-qualified candidates will fall by the wayside.
Those who condemn money in politics are naïve. The only way for a candidate to introduce himself or herself directly to voters is with a substantial funding in order to advertise heavily and bypass the chance passing references in free media that are overlooked.
We see it firsthand here in the 2nd Congressional District, which is so large geographically that no candidate could meet all voters personally. It isn’t like a legislative district where a candidate can go door-to-door and have personal conversations with voters. And heavy fundraising is essential because to reach all voters in the 2nd District requires buying ads in three television markets and in every daily newspaper except York County’s. Congressional candidates in large urban areas have it much easier with just one TV market buy, and they have the luxury of smaller geography, allowing visits that are more diverse in an average campaign day.
Presidential politics is even more complex. Astute candidates are not even reaching out to the nation-at-large. Hillary Clinton wisely started TV ads this week limited to New Hampshire and Iowa because that is where the first delegate elections take place in five months.
(For real political junkies, the best text on the system is David Plouffe’s “The Audacity to Win,” which chronicles with candid detail the 2007-08 strategies that he and David Axelrod deployed on a targeted state-by-state basis to thrust relative unknown Illinois Sen. Barack Obama ahead of better-known Clinton, Biden and Edwards.)
The key is to introduce the candidate as a person and move up from there to the issues. In our campaign schools, my partners and I teach that, “A nobody cannot challenge a somebody.” The first task is to introduce oneself to voters with enough biographical information that they are comfortable that the candidate has standing to discuss positions in contrast to the opponent.
Hillary’s ad this week is about her mother and background, not about her adult positions or policies because, even as well-known as she is, polls show voters do not really know her. Bruce Poliquin used a similar ploy early in the 2014 primary season with biographical background ads.
With enough money for saturation, the information seeps into voters’ brains, so issues can be discussed in the next round without the mental filter of, “Who the hell is this, and why should I care what he or she thinks?”
Instead of early debates, media would serve voters better with a series of biographical profiles to introduce the field without political filters. Instead of an August debate, perhaps every Democrat and Republican hopeful should get five minutes uninterrupted to present a personal background.
Once we know them, we would be more receptive to learn what they have to say. Then they can go into combat to winnow down the field to the most qualified.
Vic Berardelli, a retired political consultant is author of “The Politics Guy Campaign Tips – How to Win a Local Election.” Now an unenrolled independent, he is a former Republican State Committeeman and former member of the Republican Liberty Caucus National Board.
