Monday Morning Quarterbacking on Kerry

Lots will be written about John Kerry’s loss in yesterday’s election, but I’d like to offer the perspective of a public relations practitioner from the private sector.

Kerry could have won, in my opinion, if he had:

1) Arranged a full-hour interview with someone like Larry King early in the Swift Boat Veterans controversy. If he were my client, I would have advised him to ask the interviewer to devote the whole hour to questions about Kerry’s Vietnam service. Kerry would have been able to address the questions in people’s minds honestly and without histrionics.

2) Made very clear earlier in the race that he thought Bush’s decision to invade Iraq when he did was wrong – that Kerry had voted to give Bush the authority in order to improve his negotiating hand but that Bush had handled the situation badly. Kerry did, after the Republican convention, start talking like this, but by then it seemed like a reversal.

3) Avoided getting into the negative-campaigning gutter with Bush. Once Kerry did attack Bush over Iraq, he saw his poll numbers climbing and went into all-attack all-the-time mode. He attacked Bush over every scrap of news that came out, even if there was little evidence that Bush was to blame. When you’ve got two politicians doing nothing but attacking each other, the people throw up there hands. And, in this case, the people didn’t see in Kerry a real alternative to Bush. Here was just another politician in attack mode.

On my MHP Communications website, you’ll find other articles offering free advice to the public sector from this private-sector PR guy.