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Message Always Trumps Resume

Guest post by: Thomas J. Madden

Article Overview: Memo to Entrepreneurs: Whether applying for a job, running for political office or closing a deal, message always trumps resume.

Message Always Trumps Resume

Remember this one? "It's the economy, stupid."

That was a winning message Bill Clinton delivered triumphantly in his successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush.

That year Bush had the resume. But Clinton had the message, thanks to Clinton campaign strategist James Carville.

Bush was considered unbeatable at the time because of positive foreign policy developments such as the end of the Cold War and the blazingly successful Persian Gulf War. But Clinton had the right phrase that hit the bull's-eye. It underscored the notion that Clinton was a better choice because Bush had not adequately addressed the economy, which had recently undergone a recession.

Today I'm using a paraphrase of the President's famous ringing message myself to sell a product I invented called Knife and Forklift, a combination of dumbbells and utensils designed to help people eat slower so they get the message they're full before too much over eating has occurred. My message? "It's not what you eat, but how fast you eat!"

Are you ready for the clincher? "It's the velocity, stupid."

Recently top GOP strategist, former Bush White House aide Karl Rove, used the phrase "message always trumps resume" during an appearance on a Fox TV program.

Rove was referring to Delaware Senate primary winner Christine O'Donnell. She was catching flack for backing out of scheduled Sunday TV talk show appearances amid talk of possible civil war among Republicans over the conservative Tea Party movement which had helped her win. But Rove suggested she could easily redeem herself by delivering the right message about government's irresponsible over spending, and how it hasn't improved the job picture, but has only led to monstrous debt, will enable her to duck and cover any shortcoming in her own background.

Rove was softening his own message about O'Donnell that had created a tempest in the tea party's cub when he described her as unelectable. Now he was joining other mainstream Republicans in supporting the O'Donnell campaign despite the surfacing of an 11-year-old "witchcraft" video reinforcing the message preferred by Democrats describing her as an unknown, untested and risky candidate.

It reminded me of the power of messages and how they can resonate and make a lasting impression that drowns out any shortcoming in a resume.

When I think of all the people I've hired in some of the lofty positions I've held, such as Vice President of NBC and Director of Public Relations at ABC, I have to agree that it's usually what a candidate for a position says or promises that ultimately made up my mind to pick that person for the job.

Starting out in my own career, I had an almost two-year hole in my resume when I bummed around Italy doing odd jobs shortly after college trying to support my young native Italian bride and our tiny daughter. They included dubbing Italian films in English at Cinecitta. If you ever stay up real late watching TV, you might hear a spectator in the Coliseum shouting in a nasal, New Jersey accent, "Kill him, kill him."

I covered that hole by calling my peripatetic journey a sabbatical during which I had acquired valuable insight into the global economy. And now I could bring this experience to the present job and enable the employer to expand his business internationally. And that in turn reminds of the Mel Brooks movie "History of the World: Part 1" when each gladiator would approach a ticket box office and be asked, "Did you bullshit today?"

By the way, O'Donnell's canceling previously agreed-to interviews on "FOX News Sunday" and the CBS program "Face the Nation," and deciding instead to make appearances in Delaware, was not too smart.

The last thing you want to do in public life is piss off the press and O'Donnell certainly accomplished that with her 11^th hour no-show message.

Republican strategist Ed Rollins on the CBS program "Face the Nation" acknowledged the problem O'Donnell had created for herself O'Donnell was off to a rocky beginning.

"Right now this campaign's about her," said Rollins, who is a CNN senior political analyst. "Unless she gets her ship righted ... this is not a good start."

As a Spin Man, I'd have to agree.

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Article Tags: Bush, campaigns, CBS, Clinton, deal, Delaware, economy, FOX, memorable phrase, message, ODonnell, politics, resume, Rove, sales



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