The Art of Conversation Part 4

How do you counter an effective messaging campaign?

1. Attack. Attack. Attack.
2. Win the argument, and then win the vote.
3. Let them know you care, and then win them over.

Now let's use the same pieces as described in The Art of Conversation Part 3 to organize this a little better.

Attack, attack, attack should be the baseline. This might be what Oprah would describe as the secret. I am a little more primal than that. Attack, attack, attack, is an easy way to get what you want in life. The first person to rest, loses. Therefore, this idea is going to be the baseline of both how we beat a messaging campaign and how we perform one. (amazing how simple it is)

For the day to day arguments, I like to let people know that I care and then win them over. The day to day arguments are less important, but the audience (voters, friends, passers by) could care less about the argument if they don't think that you really care.

Finally, win the argument. Do what it takes to take down the top argument. This is the one that will hurt the most to lose. Beat it into the ground. Take no prisoners. Most importantly, don't think about anything else at this point. Just win.

After the win, then win the vote, or the support of the audience, crowd, or listeners.

Examples:

Baseline: no real examples here, but wake up early and go to bed late. Spend every waking moment figuring out how to win.

Day-to-day: SCHIP is the most current debate, so we can use the debate over SCHIP. Democrats are saying the Republicans don't support poor kids (sounds simple, but read a couple of articles-that might be a direct quote). Of course this is false, so now we to prove it. The plan: show them we care and then win. Statements need to be made about the original bill (republican), why these kids need coverage, how important it is that kids have access to health care, what a tragedy it is that our health care system is so expensive (this is also a preparation for an attack), and just look how sad they are.

After you have laid out why you care about the issue, then you have to win the argument. I like a two-fold approach to win an argument. First, why is their idea wrong? In this case, the SCHIP expansion taxes the poor for middle class benefits, bypasses the poor with an expansion, and actually decreases access (if it succeeds the way they say it will). Second, why is our idea right? We need to serve the kids the bill was originally intended for and government is an inefficient provider. There are more.

Top level argument: Beat'em up on this one. A loss here is bad. I don't think either side has done a good job on top level messages regarding the SCHIP debate. The loser is going to have a harder time with the Universal Care debate that we are moving towards, but other than that this is really just a day-to-day battle. If I were in charge of the Republicans I would be putting a lot more on this SCHIP debate though. If they win this battle the Universal Care debate is a lot easier. If I was a Democrat I would be trotting kids in front of TVs and talking about how bad the health care system is (oh wait they are doing that).

More like this will be on my website under my home page Political Bear