Word: sound
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...often, it seems, the substance of what the candidates are saying gets ignored, while the one-liners, makeup, tone, self-assurance and gaffes of each of the candidates inevitably determine the outcome. In other words, the one with the best sound bites "wins...
...recently arrived at Washington National Airport half an hour before takeoff, only to discover that he had forgotten his laptop computer. Luckily, Duffy found a Good Samaritan who stood in line for him while he sped home and picked up the machine. "Reporters without computers are like candidates without sound bites," says Duffy. Los Angeles bureau chief Dan Goodgame, who has covered both Bush and Dukakis, avoids such pitfalls by packing two light carryon bags. He is also careful to eschew the gonzo antics of some of his peers. Says he: "Socially, I suppose I'm one of the 'bores...
Dukakis and his staff nonetheless tend to see themselves in overly high- minded terms, as the innocent victims of sound-bite sabotage. Campaign chairman Brountas pointedly walked to the back of the Dukakis plane last week to give ABC newsman Sam Donaldson a copy of a Doonesbury cartoon that lampooned Bush aide Atwater as dictating the message of the day to a network news director. Similarly, Estrich, who kept her title in the Dukakis campaign while yielding to Sasso responsibility for shaping the campaign's message, claims, "The campaign staff is far more important on the Republican side, where...
Estrich was, and is, an incisive thinker and an intense manager with a keen grasp of policy issues. But she and her lieutenants were simply not adroit in matching the strategic maneuvering through which the Bush campaign dominated the sound-bite agenda. In politics, as in war, whichever side chooses the battlefield is likely to win. Baker and his cadre were designating the battlefield every day. In addition, none of the top Dukakis command, with the occasional exception of Brountas, could tell the candidate things he did not want to hear or make him do what he did not want...
...from Houston to Kentucky last Tuesday morning, the Dukakis staff mulled over how to respond to Bush's substantive event for the day: a visit to a New Jersey flag factory. At Sasso's direction, a group of aides gathered at the front of the plane to concoct a sound bite that would contrast Bush's flag-draped photo opportunity with Dukakis' upcoming speech on universal health insurance. The winning jab: "I have a question for Mr. Bush: Don't you think it's about time you came out from behind the flag and told us what you intend...