Just finished reading Barack Obama’s ‘life story’ Dreams from my Father. As he does on the Telly, in his writing he comes across well. I was left with the distinct impression that he is a thoughtful, diligent and considerate person. Above all, he seems like a decent human being who plays with a straight bat.
But the sceptic in me kept asking, Am I being played, in a good way or bad? For goodness’ sake, he’s a lawyer and a politician (and we all know politicians don’t lie straight in bed). Was the entire book a brilliant piece of spin doctoring? Like a good spin doctor, had he worked out the questions to come, and the kind of replies he needed to make in his build up to be President of the United States.
Some years ago I was told a story by someone who was brilliant at working an angle:
A customs officer stopped a youg boy who was cycling from Mexico into California. Across the handlebars of his bicycle he had two great big sacks. And of course the customs officer threw up his arm – drugs being blatantly taken across the border! “What’s in the bags?” “Sand.” “Oh yeah?” “Yeah.” “All right, let’s empthy the bags out here.” So he emptied the bags out and it was sand.
The customs officer couldn’t see anything wrong, so he let the boy put the sand back in, searched him, and watched him pedal into California.
This happened every week. Every Monday, along came this boy on his bicycle, and the customs officer examined the bags and found nothing wrong.
Finally, the customs officer became so frustrated he said, “ Look, I know your putting something across me here. We examine these bags and search you every time you cross, now what are you taking across the border?”And the boy thought for a moment and said: “New bicycles”.
Now that was a great bit of spin. All the attention was directed onto something else. How do you put an angle on something?
Some of the best examples come in speeches. When Martin Luther King said: “I have a dream, my friends,” it was a great piece of spin doctoring. It was putting the right words in the right place to the right audience. Obama’s more recent “Yes we can” mantra is pure spin.
Spin has been around a long time. I think it was Goebbels who said: “Tell a lie often enough and everyone will believe it”. That’s not true anymore. Sooner or later people are going to start asking: “Is that right? Has the emperor got clothes on?” With greater access to information, people are more sophisticated today and it doesn’t work.
An example of spin doctoring gone wrong was when Richard Nixon was advised to go on the Telly and say: “I am not a crook”. It was like, if you could fake sincerity then you’ve got it made. But Tricky Dicky looked like a sweaty crook and everybody could see it. It was bad advice.
So what are the characteristics of successful spin doctoring? To my mind, there are few points:
The first is, be genuine. Simple communication and absolute straight up integrity and honesty is key.
Two, it has to be a presentation, not a show. You can’t put on the falsity of a show. Abraham Lincoln said: “I couldn’t be two-faced, because if I had two faces I sure wouldn’t wear this one”. Straight up works best.
Third, you have to understand what your message is. Obama’s message was “Vote for Change”, a clear, simple message that made him different. People instantly knew what he stood for.
Fourth, you have to be able to see yourself as other people see you and be prepared to laugh at yourself. I remember reading a piece by the acerbic Alan Clark, the craggy old Tory MP, who described an official dinner in Peru. The host thought it would be nice to give Alan a British toast, so everyone took up their glasses and said: “Up your bottom.” Sir Alan took up his glass and replied: “Up yours”.
And finally, good spin doctoring is nearly always 90% positive. I remember reading a piece about “that woman” as I call her, Margaret Thatcher. Working on a speech, an advisor said: “I don’t like that bit”. “Don’t you, what would you put in its place?” “Well…” “Don’t waste my time. I’ve got a country to run. If you’ve got something better to suggest, fine, let’s have it. Otherwise, shut up.” Knocking all the time doesn’t attract people to you, doesn’t attract the attention that you’re looking for, doesn’t give the image you want.
Obama’s book meets my criteria. So it was an excellent piece of spin doctoring. Whatever, it felt good reading it. Perhaps, this is the most important thing for a spin doctor to do - make people feel good. Obama has certainly done that.
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