Political Conventions. Allan Bonner
Also by the author:
Doing and Saying the Right Thing:
Professional Risk and Crisis Management
Media Relations
An Ounce of Prevention
Damage Control and Crisis Response
Speaking, Writing and Presenting in SOCKOs®
Strategic Overriding Communications & Knowledge Objectives
Political Columns
Behind the Scenes with Powerful People
Tough Love at the Table
Power, Culture and Diversity in Negotiations, Mediation and Conflict Resolution
Political Conventions
First printing, January, 2009
Published by Sextant Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
© 2014 Dr. Allan Bonner, MA, MSc, LLM
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law and is forbidden.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN 978-0-9731134-9
For educational or institutional discounts or for information
about seminars and speeches, please contact:
Sextant Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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1-877-484-1667
Foreword
Allan's fifth book is early and a different book from the one I wanted to publish. It's also more timely and better.
After the success of his compilation of magazine and newspaper essays entitled Political Columns—Behind the Scenes with Powerful People,
I naturally asked for a sequel.
Allan continued writing and addressed a few issues not covered in Political Columns—including nuances of media relations and ways to win elections, make speeches and govern. We knew there could be a Canadian election at any time, so his take on websites, blogs, advertising, leaders’ debates, fundraising and all the other tools of campaigning would be well received.
But then came the American political season. Allan had visited campaign headquarters in New York and New Hampshire, and this experience motivated him to write a few columns. He was asked to do commentary on the presidential debates for PBS, and his notes and research resulted in more columns for The Hill Times—Ottawa’s political newspaper. New Hampshire public radio asked Allan for analysis on both conventions, and his hours on “The Exchange” gave him a great opportunity to test his observations.
Allan is known for hard work and research. Captivated by the most exciting presidential race since 1968 or 1948 or 1860 or perhaps ever, he took on the task of reading every inaugural address in American history, every major campaign speech and the State of the Union addresses. On his drives to presidential debates in New Hampshire, campaign offices in New York, and flights to and from the Democratic national convention in Denver, he listened to university lectures on the American Revolution, settlement history, politics, presidential history and anything else he could get his hands on. The more he listened, the more ideas he got.
It soon became clear that this book needed to focus more on the American election and political process. The title, Political Conventions, is a play on words. Allan identifies the conventions needed to campaign successfully. He deals with the conventions required to make a successful speech and those needed for governing. He often challenges conventional wisdom.
This is a “how to” book, but it has more dimensions to it. Politicians and political aides can read great advice on how to succeed, but anyone who has to communicate and motivate others will also learn lessons from this book. Political speakers will see the research they must engage in to ensure they are touching the historical and political bases that achieve success. They must also consider what other bases they must touch in their own jurisdictions. This book will help them.
As in his other books, Allan draws on his own experiences as one who helps a politician, diplomat or spokesperson every week in his training and consulting business. Sextant Publishing is happy that this book is different and early. It is in the tradition of this publishing house and its parent company, Cambridge Strategies. We want to foster intelligent, timely, public discussion and elevate the political discourse.
We want you to share our excitement with politics and public policy.
Ken Chapman
Edmonton, Alberta
Introduction
In this introduction, I proclaim my admiration for America. I don’t want any of my observations about the American political process or conventions to be misunderstood. There are two legitimate schools of thought about America. One is that it is a democratic country grappling with the mechanics of liberty, like the dozen or so others with a long history of democracy and the several dozen emerging democracies with a less free history. The other school of thought is so-called “American exceptionalism”—a doctrine that says America is unique in world history and the first, best, longest-lasting and freest system.
I’m in the first category, but that doesn’t lessen my respect for the American experience. In fact, in order to make a more perfect Union, that Union should be examined constantly. Examination includes comparing the rules and traditions of that Union with others. This examination, and the resulting evolution, has been going on ever since America began. There was a lively debate in the streets and in the Federalist Papers about the miracle in Philadelphia—the US Constitution. Continuing to examine the American experience and compare it to the experience of others is healthy and a compliment in itself.
My admiration extends to the intellectual history that exists in America. England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany certainly have it, but I regret to say that my country does not. Persia, India and China have longer intellectual histories, but they do not draw on European enlightenment or focus on individual liberties. Canadians, like Americans, drew on freedoms handed down to us by the French and British, but we haven’t explored, built on and sought to perfect those traditions as much as Americans have.
My admiration for the US is not unreserved and does not come at the expense of my good feelings for Canada. My reservations involve matters that Americans discuss regularly: distrust of government has created a tradition of pro forma criticism of government in general and Washington, D.C. in particular; wanting checks on their government, Americans all but hobbled it; the Byzantine structure that resulted creates opportunities for abuse; “earmarks,” by which individual politicians add local frivolous spending to an important bill, are wasteful and often unethical; presidential signing orders which tell the bureaucracy how to interpret legislation amount to an advance veto or de facto court rulings from the Executive Branch.
This political season has shown us how complex the US electoral system is. The American Supreme Court has ruled that political parties are pretty much free to run their affairs they way they want to. A result is that the two parties pick their leaders in substantially different ways, with different numbers of delegates and super-delegates. Delegates are counted differently in different states and differently for each party. One can shrug and say, “That’s democracy” or “Democracy