Posted on 11/26/2015 11:20:32 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
John Sears, Ronald Reagan’s one-time campaign manager, once said “discipline is nine-tenths of politics.†And, as Tevi Troy reminds us:
Candidate Reagan put Sears’ dictum into action, running a relentlessly focused communication operation that kept to its message of the day, often to the consternation of the reporters following the campaign. This approach continued into Reagan’s presidency. As the authors of All the President’s Spin put it: “Ronald Reagan’s administration broke new ground with its message discipline and image control.â€
The same was true of George W. Bush. Troy, who worked in the Bush administration, recalls Bush’s chief-of-staff Andy Card saying “George W. Bush is the most disciplined person I have ever met: He’s disciplined in his exercise, his worship, and how he runs his White House.â€
Even Bill Clinton was a disciplined politician up to a point. Troy notes that he “maintained strict message discipline – recall ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ – setting up a war room, and maintaining the standard of never letting a charge go unanswered for 24 hours.â€
For all of his faults and despite his occasional fits of public pouting, President Obama seems disciplined, though maybe “willful†is a better description. Certainly no one can deny that his presidential campaigns were highly disciplined.
How does the current batch of presidential contenders fare under the John Sears test? Donald Trump’s campaign strikes me as the least disciplined ever, at least at the superficial level where my political mind operates.
There is probably a method to Trump’s madness, and I suspect he’s organizing well behind the scenes. But a disciplined campaigner Donald Trump is not. He will put the John Sears theory to a stern examination.
Ben Carson, by contrast, exercises extraordinary self-control. However, he hasn’t put himself in a position to talk about foreign policy at more than a very superficial level. Maybe there is just too much to learn.
Jeb Bush was something of a gaffe machine early on in his campaign. He seems to lack his brother’s discipline. Maybe this was just a function of being at a different stage in his life.
Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Carly Fiorina strike me as severely disciplined campaigners. However, we don’t know much about how they operate behind the scenes, and thus how disciplined they are when it comes to organizing.
Fiorina probably lacks the resources needed to put together a campaign juggernaut. As between Cruz and Rubio, I get the impression that Cruz has done a better, more disciplined job of organizing, but I could easily be wrong.
What about Hillary Clinton? She sometimes struggles when she speaks off the cuff. However, she has the discipline to keep such occasions to a minimum.
The first Democratic debate, for which she clearly prepared intensely, showed her at her disciplined best. The second debate confirmed how difficult it can be consistently to maintain discipline over the long haul, particularly at an advanced age.
There is only one Ronald Reagan.
And .. they “don’t know how disciplined Ted Cruz is ...”
Proving once again .. the media is not paying attention to anybody except those they want in the WH.
The LSM needs to be disiplined. Give them a two year time-out.
“The first Democratic debate, for which she clearly prepared intensely, showed her at her disciplined best.”
Not to difficult to look good when you have the questions in advance.
“Candidate Reagan put Sears’ dictum into action, running a relentlessly focused communication operation that kept to its message of the day, often to the consternation of the reporters following the campaign. This approach continued into Reagan’s presidency.”
While that may be true, for the record, Reagan unloaded Sears after losing Iowa to GHWB in 1980. Sears was highly risk-averse, and limited his candidates’ appearances. His idea of message management was to say as little as possible.
John Sears, Ronald Reagan's one-time campaign manager, once said "discipline is nine-tenths of politics."...
The same was true of George W. Bush. Troy, who worked in the Bush administration, recalls Bush's chief-of-staff Andy Card saying "George W. Bush is the most disciplined person I have ever met: He's disciplined in his exercise, his worship, and how he runs his White House."
Card was impressed by his boss, who may have in fact been "disciplined" within the four corners of the White House, but Bush 43 took a pounding daily outside the walls and none of us could believe that they stood and took it. What good is this vaunted discipline if the press is actively destroying you day in and day out? Thinking outside-the-box was not a strong suit of Bush43 or his team. They had the means to destroy their enemies in the (D)emocratic-Terrorist party but never pulled the trigger. They played defense when the best defense is a good offense! I can't believe any of these guys are even opening their mouthes today, or ever.
How does the current batch of presidential contenders fare under the John Sears test? Donald Trump's campaign strikes me as the least disciplined ever, at least at the superficial level where my political mind operates.There is probably a method to Trump's madness, and I suspect he's organizing well behind the scenes. But a disciplined campaigner Donald Trump is not. He will put the John Sears theory to a stern examination.
Yeah there is a method to the madness. He is by accident or design building up a critical immunity to political correctness - the main weapon of the left. If this is his actual plan then he is a genius of never before seen proportions. But its okay if it is a happy accident too. He will need to be able to withstand their feeble attacks later, to avoid the Lazio trap that Hillary pulled in that Senate debate accusing him of invading her safe space. Trump will be able to just say: "Poor baby".
As for Ronaldus Maximus, yeah he sometimes seemed to have message discipline. But the truth of the matter was he was at his worse when he was scripted, controlled and meek. This is where the 'Let Reagan be Reagan' began. Everyone from Nancy on down turned our guy into a pale imitation ( 2nd term ) of his former self ( 1st term ). They were on the defense all the time. I'm not sure if this author actually believes what he is writing or whether he thinks no-one is still alive who remembers the steady change from 1981 to 1989. So anyway, thanks for the advice guys. We'll take it from here.
Or those they know they can destroy in the general election.
Reagan did not really take off politically until he fired John Sears.
Unlike the other Power Line guys, this author is consistently clueless. He seems like a very nice person, just totally out of it.
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