The Simple Distillation Of McCain's Message Problem

One of the most important challenges in running a political campaign is distilling and defining a central message or rationale for your candidacy. Equally important is to do the same for your opponent. The best campaigns manage to effectively define themselves and their opponent.

Along those lines, one of the best little tricks I learned in managing campaigns is an exercise called the Tully Message Box, named after Paul Tully, a long-time Democratic strategist. Simply, you draw a square, divide it into four quadrants, and build your message as follows:

It's a cleverly simply method of understanding how to develop a narrative that will drive an entire campaign. It can also be used to game out specific issues and how to either press a message or defend against it.

Now, let's take the Message Box method and apply it to the presidential race:

Is there any doubt why John McCain has not been able to get traction on a single message in the general election -- either pro or con -- and why Barack Obama has not had such a problem?

Mark Nickolas is the Managing Editor of Political Base, and this story was from his original post, "The Simple Distillation Of McCain's Message Problem"

Comments

[dawnRSA]

sheer brilliance!

[lennix]

did not get in the gutter obama/biden 08

[Krikkit]

This is how you keep the mud from sticking. Build a strong image on a single theme and remain unflappable about it. Tie every sub-theme to the main one. For instance, back in July when Obama warned that McCain would try to scare voters, he tied that tactic to "the same old politics" and used that as an illustration of something that had to change.

The man is brilliant. Even the fringe who hate him will benefit from his leadership.

[mediamarv]

A great illustration of message development. I use this tool a lot with my clients in Media Training classes.
I will use this post in future classes as an excellent example of how to analyze successful campaigns. I have a feeling that the Obama campaign will provide fodder for many "how to" and "how it was done" books in the coming years.
Kudos to Mr. Nikolas for pointing this out.