STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Finally DNC Agrees to have Plan B for Hillary 

#Dukakis2016—DNC Fears what happened in the Bush Sr/ Dukakis Presidential Election.

This twitter reference to Dukakis allows me to write about my personal/professional involvement in the 1988 presidential. Not to sound too Donaldesque but I did some of my best psychological work in that race for the Presidency.

As I remember, I was called in to see James Baker III. I didn’t know why I was summoned but I had an immense amount of respect for him and his assistant Robert Zoellick.

They asked me to formulate a strategy to help George H. W. Bush Sr. ascend his ten or fifteen point loss to Mass. Governor Dukakis. Without much ado, I first asked Baker to make certain that Atwood, who had just come into the room, be asked to leave. I did not like him nor was I interested in his ‘gunshot approach’ to life and politics in general. In any case, seated next to me was another figure whom I did not know but eventually learned to respect. His name was Roger Ailes of now Fox News Fame. At the time, he was TV/media expert.

In a few hours, we started to create a strategy using Dukakis’s personal dynamics [not relevant for this discussion] to affect a change in his behavior. It worked, Dukakis literally ended up in a tank, making himself look absolutely ridiculous. We kept Dukakis busy in Mass. , and we swung Bush Sr out of the state and moved him onto other states where he was able to politic as best as he could.

It is important for me to add that the ‘old man’, like Jeb, is not a ‘natural politician’. Unlike George Bush Jr [whose campaign I was also a part of unfortunately] was more of natural.  He was comfortable joking and teasing people around him. George Bush Jr had the ease of dealing with strangers [ although I had never met him] that his father and brother, Jeb, just do not possess.

It must be said of President Nixon as brilliant as he might have been, he was not a natural people-to-people type of politician. Perhaps the best candidate I have ever met was Bill Clinton. He was simply excellent at glad-handing strangers and working the vote. Bill owned the room as soon as he entered.  I have already whined about his uncanny ability to appeal to the ladies. 

Bill had that gift but his wife does not. Hillary is learning that no amount of training or prepping can make you ‘approachable’ and ‘engaging’ if you are not. It’s one of those personality traits with which one is endowed. From what I can see on the TV, it seems that Bernie Sanders has that type of controlled charisma that makes him both credible and approachable. If you were to tell me that an avowed Jewish Socialist from the failing state of Vermont was to become popular, I too, would have been incredulous.

I made the mistake that thinking that the affable President Gerald Ford would trump the more dower President Jimmy Carter. I was clearly wrong. Personality and charisma do not necessarily win the elections. Yet those traits do help a candidate go quite far.

As for the Present Plan B for the DNC, I can say the following about two of the potential candidates whom I have met on a cursory basis:

▪ Former VP Al Gore was born and bred to be POTUS. He came from a distinguished family of sincere, honest politicians. He could win the race, if he picked the right team. He may have to face the dirty trix Bush team again but this time he is wiser. He’ll have to work out the failed marriage thing but hey, its the 21st century.

▪ VP Joe Biden has a clear shot at the Presidency. There is something quite genuine and sincere about him that makes him appear approachable and credible. He has had the endurance and suffering that wizens a politician in a way that makes him act in a very responsible, effective way. He is a politician who enjoys his work and wants everyone else to share part of that enthusiasm.

In effect, I am glad that the DNC has begun to think of Plan B. Irrespective of the $120M that Hillary and Bill raised and the so-called ‘formidable team’ that they have organized in every state, the truth is far more cruel. My advice to the DNC is put your new candidate into play ASAP!
It’s not too late.

And then, let the games begin!!

Let me end with the prescient words of President John F. Kennedy:
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”