When Silence is Golden, Hillary
If you’re in business, you can learn a lot from politicians’ mistakes. No, this isn’t about setting up a private email server. Rather about knowing when to comment on an issue or avoid saying anything.
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have dug themselves into holes when going off a script.
In the short video clip accompanying this article, Hillary Clinton avoids answering questions about the latest political controversy.
Background
The father of Islamist gay-nightclub shooter Omar Mateen is supporting Hillary Clinton for president and attended a rally for the candidate, standing near the stage as she addressed the crowd, as reported by the Washington Times.
Seddique Mateen, a native of Afghanistan, appeared in several TV shots behind Mrs. Clinton as she spoke in Kissimmee, Florida.
“Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions,” he told WPTV later in an interview.
Omar Mateen attacked patrons at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a bar popular with the gay community, in June and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. He was killed by police.
When Silence is Golden, Hillary Takeaways
- Prepare yourself to comment on issues reporters are likely to ask about.
- Anticipate follow-up questions so you won’t be caught by surprise.
- Get feedback on your answers from people whose opinions you trust.
- If you can’t easily defend your position, focus on your competition
- If you’re not prepared to answer a question on the fly, just keep walking.
- To be sure, you’ll do better to answer question than avoid them. But if you don’t have the right answers, say nothing.
- If you can’t think on the fly, avoid situations like news conferences.
- But that works only if you’re ahead and have more to lose with answers than gain.
- If you have to decline comment too often, you have a bigger problem than simply managing you messaging.
- Finally, if you need to destroy 30,000 emails about your yoga before the FBI investigates you, spend more time with yoga. Less time writing about it!
Contact me if you need more advice: bob@kaplitz.tv.
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