Monday, Nov. 23, 2009
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ANALYSIS
Palin's Pregnant Teen Spurs Damage Control
Experts Weigh In On How The McCain-Palin Team Should Handle Situation
The scrum of reporters surrounding Steve Schmidt, John McCain's day-to-day campaign manager, was six-deep on Monday as the news of Sarah Palin's teenage daughter and her out-of-wedlock pregnancy ricocheted through a convention city already rebooting because of the disruptions caused by Hurricane Gustav.
Not since campaign adviser Dick Morris distracted Bill Clinton's 1996 convention in Chicago with news of his toe-licking and dalliances with prostitutes has a party convention required such opening-day damage control. A dozen years ago, the nominee's team circled the wagons and cast the offender into outer-planetary systems, then changed the subject. Schmidt had no such option. He could not quarantine McCain from the foibles of the campaign's vetting process or the running mate's family dramas, so he admonished the media to leave the Palin family alone.
"The American people will not react positively to intrusions into the privacy of [Palin's] children," Schmidt warned reporters in stern tones, his shaved head barely visible above the scribbling crowd. The Alaska governor, he said, will deliver a "compelling" acceptance speech this week, although he declined to say whether Palin's remarks will occur in front of the delegates gathered in Minneapolis-St. Paul, or off-site.
Because crisis communications for candidates, members of Congress, and presidents are common enough to be big business these days, Convention Daily asked a few experienced hands for some insights.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, no stranger to crisis or communications, said that weeks will probably need to unspool before the full impact of Palin's record and her family travails will be known. To survive, he said, McCain's running mate "does not have to be perfect; she has to be honest."
Washington lawyer Lanny Davis, who helped President Clinton survive various scandals as a White House special counsel, said that the subtitle of his 1999 book about crisis management continues to sum up the lessons he could offer McCain, Palin, or anyone else: "Tell it all, tell it early, and tell it yourself." Although Palin and her 17-year-old daughter deserve public understanding and sympathy -- even empathy, Davis said -- they cannot expect or demand a reprieve from public questioning and media scrutiny.
"Senator McCain and Governor Palin gave up their right to privacy when they ran for president," Davis said. "Everyone will be sympathetic if they put all the facts out."
The fact that McCain apparently knew about the pregnancy before he surprised everyone with his pick, and somehow did not imagine it could erupt into a story line of his campaign, raises questions about vetting and appropriate preparation, said Ed Rollins, a McCain supporter who managed Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign this year.
"You don't want this to become a soap opera," he warned, "and you don't want this to do any damage to that little girl." His advice? Make sure the facts as told this week are the full story, and then stop talking about the pregnancy, and don't try to use Palin and her daughter as either a plus or a minus in terms of their decisions about reproduction, parenting, or teenage marriage. "And I would go back to the campaign [this week] and make it all about us -- the differences in policy between Republicans and the Democratic ticket -- and get this thing moving forward," Rollins said.