There’s a story about a Republican consultant — I don’t remember the name — who upon seeing George W. Bush give a concession speech on TV — I believe it was his congressional race in 1978 — said, “There’s a winner.” The sound wasn’t even turned up, but he liked the body language, thinking Bush’s body said confidence.
I don’t know whether I buy that body language is why people elect presidents, but certainly they way one performs on TV is important.
I make the following comments without having seen the second half of the interview. The video link at MSNBC is flawed and ends with the commercial break in the interview.
In last night’s “Hardball” debate, Harris Miller looked a little stiff. In personal appearances, I’ve thought Jim Webb was stiff. In the remaining days, there’s not much to do about TV appearances, but somebody should have trained Miller better. He needed to lower his head, turned his shoulders every so slightly and occasionally and very briefly looked downward from the camera. That being said, his performance wasn’t bad.
Webb had the advantage to be in the studio, which any politician should opt for when possible. Listening to the question and responding over an earpiece is harder than locking eyes while a person asks a question. Webb looked less stiff, though hardly at ease. He also didn’t perform badly.
Chris Matthews, however, was horrendous. Why people can’t deal with him is beyond me. His constantly interrupts in virtually every interview he does, even with his round table discussions with other journalists (though I don’t really put Matthews in that profession). There’s a way to for interviewees to deal with that effectively.
Every politician should memorize his answer for times like this. One easy way to respond to Matthews badgering is to answer a question with a question. When haranguing Webb about immigration, the first thing you say is, “Which question do you want me to answer first?” Matthews is predictable; he always interrupts. Another ahe answer for every such instance is this:
“Mr. Matthews (never Chris), I think your listeners care about this issue and want to hear a reasoned discussion. Your rudely interrupting your guests doesn’t help. I don’t think it serves listeners to hear a shouting match. So I will respect, listen to you and respond to your questions. I would appreciate your doing the same.”
On the immigration issues, he could have gone farther.
“Polls show that people understand the complexity of the immigration issue. They know we depend on immigrants for many of our goods and services. And our systems for verifying citizenship are notoriously inadequate. And your saying we should do a background check on people we might hire as to paint out homes or mow our grass just because they have an accent or are of a different color than us is bigotry in its worse form. My grandfather had a Scottish accent til the day he died, but he was a naturalized citizen. I think you owe immigrants an apology.”
I made the last part up, but if Webb had any dead relative who was a naturalized citizen, who could prove him wrong? And Matthews didn’t say color but let him correct you; he’s now on the defensive.
Turning the tables on an interviewer, when done calmly and respectfully not only puts a Chris Matthews type guy on the defensive, it gains you credibility and respect from the listeners for putting a blowhard in his place.
The downside, of course, is that you’ll never likely get invited on his show again. Which, come to think of it, is not much of a downside.