Like many of you, I’ll be checking election returns throughout the day. Several years ago, I wrote a blog (”The Presidency-My View”) that I worked on for a very long time before I published it. At the end, I talked about 4 B’s - the Brand, Brains (focus on knowledge jobs), Books (America’s finances), and living in a transparent way as if you’re in a Bubble. These four B’s were the factors I felt the CEO of our country, the U.S. president, should be evaluated on.
As I think about the branding that goes into presidential campaigns - Country First and Change We Can Believe In - I’m struck by the difference between “getting your story right” and simply telling the truth. David Axelrod, Obama’s version of Karl Rove, responded to this conundrum in an interview conducted for Frontline’s The Choice (I’ve made bold the particular passages I want to highlight, and include the full Q&A for context).
Frontline: “[Time magazine’s] Mark Halperin has written that to be successful in the business of running a candidate, you have to control the story. How did you guys maintain the story that you wanted people to understand?”
Axelrod: “I think a successful campaign is built on a foundation of truth and is consistent. We had a fundamental message that animated the Obama campaign from the very beginning and really didn’t change very much over the course of a campaign. It was rooted in who he was, his values and his background and his history, and him as a force for change in a year when change was what this election was going to be all about.
“And we never—and we still haven’t—diverged from that, not just because it works but because it’s true. And I think one of the problems that some of the other candidates faced is that they didn’t have a consistent story. And when you start changing your story line, when you’re one thing one day and another thing the next, it creates a dissonance that concerns voters.”
I’ve been most drawn-in when Senators McCain or Obama have told the truth during this campaign. One moment was when Senator Obama said that he favors competition for public schools, because they’re simply not performing to the levels they should be. I audibly gasped. By making that statement - which is true - Obama may have honked-off the powerful teachers’ union, a traditional stalwart voting block for the Democratic party. He knew that, and told the truth anyway.
We need more of that, regardless of who wins the election. But it won’t be easy; it goes against America’s nature.
Over the years Americans have become experts at spinning stories. We’re really, really good at marketing… and we often believe our own hype. How else could smart people who have to balance their own checkbooks every month believe that they could afford a $700,000 home on a $40,000 income? How else could the heads of companies that are “too big to fail” miss all the signs that their firms were in trouble? This happened because we told ourselves a story… and most everyone believed it, facts be damned.
Our economy has just suffered a heart-attack. Our reputation in the world is limping along. Young Americans today are growing up in a world where you can become famous for no material reason. We’re choking on our own vomit of story-telling and spin.
Truth is the antidote. It’s the fresh air we need to breathe, the raw food diet we need to recalibrate our cravings.
Truth is simple. As my mother used to say, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember the lies you told.”
Truth is the straightest road between where we are and where we can go. I’ll see you there
