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Easily distracted Setting the Agenda: War of Words Goes Gore's WayBy Rick Horowitz
George wants to talk about this. Al wants to talk about that. They talk about that. George has been planning for weeks to talk about this. He's got the speeches written, the photo-ops scheduled -- classrooms full of camera-ready students and dedicated teachers hungry for better schools. Talking about this is what George likes best. Talking about this is what George does best. Al doesn't want to talk about this. He'd rather talk about that. He's got his own speeches written, his own photo-ops scheduled -- halls full of working people and working people's families hungry for a little tax relief. Talking about that is what Al likes best. Talking about that, and talking about how George's plan for that is a bad plan. A risky plan. An unfair plan. George doesn't want to talk about that, but before he knows it, he's talking about that anyway. He's defending his plan for that. He's saying he has to do a better job of explaining his plan for that. He tries to explain, but he stumbles. So he tries again. And again. Before he knows it, he's spending days talking about that, defending and explaining, explaining and defending. He spends his whole week talking about that. Nobody hears a word he says about this. But now George is through talking about that. It's a new day, a new week: He's going to try again to talk about this. He's got more speeches lined up, more photo-ops. He won't allow himself to be distracted the way he was distracted last week. He's determined to talk about this. Al still doesn't want to talk about this. He doesn't even want to talk about that anymore. He wants to talk about the other thing. He's got new speeches about the other thing, and new photo-ops -- halls full of worried seniors, drugstores full of high-priced medicines. Talking about the other thing is what Al likes best this week. Talking about the other thing, and talking about how George doesn't even have a plan for the other thing. George's TV ads say he has a plan for the other thing, but even George's running mate admits he doesn't, not really. Not yet. George doesn't want to talk about the other thing, but before he knows it, he's talking about the other thing anyway, defending and explaining, explaining and defending. He's still working out the details on the other thing, he says. There are lots of different ways he can go on the other thing. He'll have his own plan for the other thing pretty soon, he says. That's when he'll fill in some of the details. Before he knows it, he's spending days talking about the other thing. He wasn't going to allow himself to be distracted this time. He was going to talk about this, and only this. But nobody hears a word he says about this. They're too busy noticing how shaky he is about that, how sluggish he is about the other thing. They're even writing stories saying how shaky and sluggish he is. When George was riding high -- and wasn't he riding high for months? -- he talked about what he wanted to talk about. He talked about this whenever he wanted to, and everyone heard every word. If he didn't want to talk about that, he wouldn't. If he didn't want to talk about the other thing, he wouldn't. It didn't matter what Al wanted to talk about -- George stuck to his plan. He stayed on message. He didn't get distracted, or defensive, or demoralized. Wasn't he riding high for months? What happened? This was then. That is now. And that's that. Posted 8/29/00. But
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Rick Horowitz