99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-63- The Political Stage

Episode Date: October 13, 2012

On this special edition of 99% Invisible, we joined forces with Andrea Seabrook of DecodeDC to investigate all the thought that goes into the most miniscule details of a political campaign. Andrea was the star of episode #48 of 99% … Continue reading →

This is 99% invisible. And the code DC. It's a special joint episode between my friend here, Roman Mars. And my friend Andrea Seabruck. It's election season, as you know. And Andrea and I found out we had a lot of the same questions about the political events that are everywhere right now. Questions like, how much of a debate or a press conference

is genuinely spontaneous? And how much is pre-planned? Who designs the theater of politics? Why do speeches and town hall meetings look the way they do? And what message are the campaigns trying to express with their design? To answer some of these questions, we track down two of the most interesting people I've ever talked to in politics. And we ask them for their secrets.

Secret number one, every campaign has a brand. This is probably not a huge secret to anyone who's paying close attention, but it's more than just the politician himself as a brand is an abstraction that floats on top of the human being that's running for office. So Obama in 2008, it was hope and for Romney right now, I don't know, I can't really put my finger on it. Romney's brand is like a competent businessman who can bring back jobs. That is the message that the campaign is selling

and every detail is arranged to market that brand. The politician's clothes, how he walks, what he says, where he goes, his sense of humor, his wife, his haircut, his watch. Which brings us to secret number two. Every campaign has a team of people who are in charge of making every event fit that brand. They're called the advanced team. From campaign headquarters, they're given a location, a date, a type of event, and a

plane ticket. Donnie Fowler is a long time advanced guy. He worked for Bill Clinton, El Gorge, John Kerry, Barack Obama. I'm so he's a Democrat. Yes, very much Democrat. And Fowler says that for every campaign event, there's something you have to have on the stage, but it's a different thing in every place. Whether it's the flag or in Iowa, the hay, bail, or the coal miner standing behind you in Ohio,

or the beach, if you're in Florida, the naval yard if you're in Virginia. So you won't local color, you won't find a Americana, and you won't real people. The key, he says, is making the event real people. The key he says is making the event look genuine. The politician looked more human and good at relating to regular

Americans. So you rarely are going to see even mid-Romney in front of a boardroom with a bunch of white guys in blue suits and red ties. Because even though his background to his benefit, to his credit, is from the corporate

boardroom, that's not the kind of images you want to choose when you're running for president. Now John Ceton, a Republican advanced guy, agrees. Having a veil of hair, corn, reference, or something like that certainly kind of gives you know, makes it clear that you're somewhere rural, so makes it clear that, you know, if it's caucus season, you're an Iowa and sends that message. Seaton worked for Republicans like John McCain, Sarah Palin, Tim Polenti. And that brings us to secret number three. The advanced teams run their campaigns pretty much the same way.

Some are better funded than others, but they're all doing the same thing, marketing their brand day by day event by event. Fowler says the advance team flies into the event location a week or more before a speech or rally. A 20 minute event requires several dozen people, campaign staff, secret service. They start there from zero and work hundreds and hundreds of hours to put together what might be that 20-minute campaign stop. The advanced team is responsible for the staging of the event, from the flowers to the backdrop, to the security and the audience. The first big decision is where to have the event. And that, says Valor, can so easily go wrong.

Like in 2004, when John Kerry went to the key primary state of South to have the event. And that can so easily go wrong. Like in 2004, when John Kerry went to the key primary state of South Carolina to announce his candidacy. Kerry's a Vietnam war hero and he gave his speech before the USS Yorktown,

a massive aircraft carrier. Which at the time seemed like a good idea. Everyone in America knows it's not fair. The crowd was tiny. And especially in front of a huge aircraft carrier, a tiny crowd looked even tiny. And fair, once and for all.

There's a big lesson in this one, says Fowler. Don't put the candidate in a situation where he looks diminished because you can't build a crowd. Same as the Romney economic speech this year where he put it in a football stadium and there was only a few thousand people that looked like nobody showed up to hear Romney talk about the economy. I want to thank the folks at the Ford field for making this space available for us. I guess we had a hard time finding a large enough place to meet and this certainly is. Now the Republican advanced guy,

Seaton, also talked about that Romney speech and he too says choosing a venue that's too large can be disastrous. You know immediately before the candidate even takes the stage, you're going to have people tweeting and blogging about how you know candidate X clearly doesn't have very much support in this county because his venue is basically empty. And then remember, those week clauses, the camera's pan of the empty stadium will be played over and over and over again. Romney's campaign couldn't even fill all the chairs in the audience.

Secret number four is a corollary to this. Every campaign these days sends out well spies, I guess you could call them, to every one of their opponents events. In politics, they're called trackers to see. We have been generating more and more trackers from the other campaigns. You don't want to give them anything to use.

On the visual side, they'll offer to Canada. So here's the half secret. The advanced staff of one candidate often becomes friendly with the trackers of their opponent. Morning Ralph. Morning Sam. I mean, hey, they're in the same line of work. There's each other everywhere. It's their life. Well, better luck next time, Ralph. Oh, sure. You can't win them all, you know.

Thanks. Nice day, I Sam. Yep. Good to be alive, Ralph. Secret number five. Everything is staged. I cannot stress this enough. And the longer in advance an event is planned, the more granular that staging becomes. Take the debates, says Fowler. So here's what you're seeing is not an extemporaneous debate between two very smart people.

No, it's an incredibly, finally staged theater. Every little detail about that stage how they're standing is discussed and litigated early. And if you watch carefully, Cecetan, you can tell. Look at how the candidate she can and the presence they have with each other, what they're doing and the other person's talking. Then there are the conventions. Also incredible dramaturgical feats From the message of the speeches to the timing of the balloon drop even the chance of the crowds that seem so spontaneous They're completely pre-planned by the campaign staff Come be bright, come be bright, come on be bright. Seaton says each section of the convention floor

has a campaign whip who receives instructions passed down from a central planner. And the whips then make sure that their sections are chanting appropriately. Because left to their own devices, a big group can become a big stupid mob. Like at the Republican Convention this year, when a bunch of people started chanting the USA preventing the committee woman from Puerto Rico from

taking a mic. Which actually brings us to secret number six. No matter how carefully the advanced team plans, campaign events can and do go wrong. And the biggest screw-ups, Saseaton, are totally self-inflicted. And then I think everyone remembers Governor Palin doing an interview with Front of Turkey's being being killed. The event was supposed to be a pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey, Palin's attempt to do a presidential event.

But when she took questions from reporters, she stood right in front of a slaughtering table. Oh, well, this was me, Dave. I was happy to get to be invited to participate in this. And you know, behind her right now, a man is hoisting live turkeys up into a cone so he can slit their necks and bleed them to death. You see this happening and it's just like there was no one there to say wait a minute

maybe we should move this interview you know five feet over the left for something. Donnie Fowler remembers a fancy fundraiser for Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. Harvey Weinstein and Paul Newman were going to introduce President Clinton into this big fundraiser in Connecticut. And I was in charge of telling Paul Newman and Harvey Weinstein when they were going to go up on the stage to welcome President Clinton into the room. And in my little earpiece, I heard, where are you in the program? We're on our way.

And so I went to Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Newman, and I said, gentlemen, it's time for you to go and introduce President into the room. So they stand up and they say how happy they are to be there and they say ladies and gentlemen will you please stand up and welcome President Clinton to the room. The doors in the back of the room opened, the spotlight shown on the doors and in walk Kinny G. and in walk Kenny G. So Harvey Weinstein and Paul Moon would look at me from the stage like, what the heck is going on man. Fowler realized the wrong person had been talking in his earpiece saying,

let's get started, we're on our way. He thought it was Clinton's handlerslers but it had been Kenny G's. And that brings us to secret number seven. Everyone traveling with the campaign the advanced team the handlers probably even the candidate ends up loathing the music. So do the reporters. First. Step out of the day! The sort of upbeat, we love America pop song that you come to the stage and you leave the stage and work the rope line with too. Brooks and Duns got this song, Only in America that I think has been used by both parties since President Bush in 2004. The patriotic mix, Satan and Valor, both of them, serious political animals, told us they

do not miss that in the off years. So Satan, Valor, I can't remember who's the Republican and who's the Democrat. It doesn't matter. They're putting on the same show. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Andrea C. Bruck-Lena, Macintosh, Sam Greenspan, and me Roman Mars. We are a project of KALW and the AIA San Francisco. You can find this show and like the show on Facebook. All of us are on Twitter, Instagram,

and Spotify, but to find out more about this story including cool pictures and links and listen to all the episodes of 99% Invisible. You must go to 99pi.org. Radio to the end. Radio Tapio. From PRX.