You can listen to this article as you read it at NPR

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Americans Don't Fall For Spin During A Crisis

by Ari Shapiro, May 8, 2010

One botched crisis can make a huge difference in the public's view of a president. This week, President Obama is juggling two acute crises, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a terrorism plot in New York's Times Square. Whether the country approves of his actions could color the rest of his term.

The Bush presidency, for example, never fully recovered after Hurricane Katrina. Jimmy Carter's poll numbers — and his presidency — hit a turning point during the Iran hostage crisis. Carter's approval ratings flopped permanently, but not immediately. Andrew Kohut from the Pew Research Center says the response to Carter's reaction was a very positive one at first.

"His approval ratings soared," Kohut says, "from a 30 percent level to a 55, 60 percent level. It was one of the biggest jumps we'd ever seen."

Kohut says the moral to the story is this: "The public is always willing to give the president credit for trying, especially in the initial time period when an acute problem occurs."

But the instinct to support the president doesn't last forever. Patience runs thin, and results matter. How do Americans make a collective decision about whether a president has succeeded or failed in a crisis?

Success Can't Be Spun

Among almost a dozen experts, from Republicans to Democrats, pollsters and spin doctors, each person gave the same answer.

"No amount of spin can overcome poor performance," Republican consultant Mark Corallo says.

"Bad behavior, I don't think, can actually be saved by good messaging," Democratic crisis consultant Lorena Chambers agrees.

Crisis consultant Lanny Davis, who worked in the Clinton White House, called it a "dog bites man" story that people in politics too often ignore. If you want to appear successful, he says, then you need to actually succeed.

"The misconception is that the message is the solution," he says. "And it's not only a misconception; it's a trap that crisis managers as well as people in the White House can easily fall into. You lose sight over what the American people are looking for: solutions."

Obama's Response Goes Beyond Crisis

Despite the professional consensus that results are more important than images, people inside the Obama administration are not taking any chances with their messaging.

Describing the government's reaction to the oil spill, President Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano used the same phrase — "response from Day 1" — more than a dozen times in a single day.

At a time when confidence in government is lower than it's been in decades, the Obama administration is on a mission to restore Americans' faith in their elected representatives. So this messaging project is bigger than the crises at hand — it's about conveying competence on a large scale.

Because Taking Action Isn't Enough

Immediately after police arrested a suspect in the Times Square bomb plot, Attorney General Eric Holder called a press conference. That isn't unusual, but this press conference was at 1:30 in the morning.

Continues . . .

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Very interesting read especially coming from Ari Shapiro of NPR. 

Americans have become cynical of all things political. It is a legacy we have inherited from Pres.Bush's "Mission Accomplished" claim compounded by the continuation of Pres.Bush economic policy with the bailouts and the statements and charts that went along with the TARP. Yes, TARP averted a mega crisis, but that with TARP money and without TARP money curves just did not pan out. 

May be this level of disasters is the norm for every president... but it seems me like they are more frequent lately. Anyways, it's gonna be interesting to see how we mop the mess in Tennessee and how that differs from Katrina... especially Katrina floods in Biloxi that went completely ignored by the Federal govt - we did not even hear of Biloxi - at least Louisiana got coverage eventually.. but the damage in Biloxi was far worse as they got the eye of the storm and the water surge. 

Today, there were new jobs numbers. There was an economic commission hearing.  I hope some of you got to see it.  It was interesting to hear how badly affected women with children are this time around - it is worse this time for this group than it has been in prior recessions.  There were stats shared also for teenagers.  While it appears that new job growth has occured 2 months in a row, when you lift the hood, the pockets of unemployment are just stunningly bad.  You just cannot spin these things away.  Yes, on the good news side, there is some energy in the economy and that is palpable.


-- Edited by Sanders on Saturday 8th of May 2010 02:51:02 AM