Clintons Play Their PR Cards Right

Both Hillary and Bill Clinton had big PR opportunities last night at the Democratic convention, and let’s face it, both could have screwed them up. But in my estimation, they both did the best job they could have done.

First, Hillary: at this point in the election process, her job was to not only fully admit defeat, but to do everything she could to demonstrate that she fully supported Obama for president. No ifs, no buts, no leaving the door open for 2012.

To me, that meant not only a) making the speech she made on Tuesday and b) releasing her delegates, but also c) making it an uncontested nomination. I thought she could have done it in her speech by asking her delegates not to vote for her, but she did it an even better and more convincing way, by making the call for acclamation herself in the midst of the roll call.

The PR point here is that to be credible in the future, when she will surely have other political opportunities (Senate majority leader, Supreme Court nominee, candidate in 2012, etc.), she needed to come across as 100% humble this week. Grade: A+

Bill Clinton: In my opinion, Bill Clinton lost the primaries and the nomination for his wife, by not giving her enough of a wide berth to run, on her own, for president. I, for one, was not interested in a shadow co-presidency. Bill did a terrible job of making it clear that he would stay out of the way if Hillary was elected. In fact, he made it clear that he would do the opposite, which was, from a PR standpoint, the exact wrong thing to do. It sent the terrible message that Hillary couldn’t stand up to her husband, raising doubts about how well she could stand up to other world leaders like, say, Vladimir Putin.

So Bill had a bit of reclamation project last night, and he nailed it. He was his old self, smart, charming, witty and convincing (and for extra credit, brief!). Obama might win this election on his own, but if he has a credible Bill Clinton campaigning for him, he will be that much tougher to beat. But for Clinton to be credible on the campaign trail, he too had to come across yesterday as 100% behind Obama, and in my opinion, he did. Grade: A

One other Clinton could have helped Obama’s cause, and she didn’t: Chelsea. As a young adult who appeals to young voters, Chelsea certainly could have been more visible than sitting next to her folks. She could have also given a short speech supporting Obama — why not? Anyway, a missed opportunity. It will be interesting to see if she is visible on the campaign trail going forward. Grade: INC