Mark McKinnon Quotes
Convention speeches are powerful tools to bend the curve of public opinion. George H. W. Bush's 1988 convention speech is a great example. His son's speech was also quite powerful.
McKinnon, Mark. "Convention Speeches." The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 2012.
Califano was referring to his appearance on a special television broadcast on CBS on September 9, 1965, to inform New Yorkers of the administration’s actions and concern after a power failure had blacked out 80,000 square miles and 30 million people in the Northeast including New York City as well as parts of Ontario, Canada. People were initially concerned that the blackout might have been a Soviet attack
Stimson had run for the New York Governor and had lost. Stimson had been offered by President Taft the job of Secretary of State, and asked TR’s advice as to whether to take it. Stimson became Secretary of State.
The reference was to President George W. Bush.
TR was the first American President to speak in front of the sound motion picture cameras. He was so conscious of this new technology that the timed his speeches and marked major pauses to allow for the cameramen to change rolls of film.
The feeling was mutual. These two men hated each other as much as any two individuals in politics.
Mencken was a brilliant and funny but pompous snob who had little respect for the average person.
This is a wonderful historical picture of FDR on his campaign train. Note that the President liked to listen to ideas of many people. Unlike most Presidents he did not have any particular political programs that he advocated in his campaigning. He had no immediate answers to the Great Depression that he had inherited from the Hoover administration. But unlike Hoover, and most Presidents, he was willing to try ideas for which there was no advance evidence of success. If that did not help, he would try something else. He sought ideas from anyone and everyone. His enemies called him a weak leader who had no ideology—no principles but just trying unproven solutions to solve the nation’s critical problems. But it worked and he was elected 4 times—the only President who had served even 3 terms.
He was a speechwriter for Adlai Stevenson who wrote many of his own speeches but so many are required a modern president and candidate must have speechwriters.
Mark McKinnon is an American political advisor, reform advocate, media columnist and television producer. He was the chief media advisor to five successful presidential primary and general election campaigns, and is a co-founder of No Labels, an organization dedicated to bipartisanship and political problem solving. He served as vice chairman of Public Strategies, Inc., which was acquired by the international communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton Strategies, and was president of Maverick Media. McKinnon is the co-creator, co-executive producer, and co-host of Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth and consulted on the HBO series The Newsroom and Netflix's House of Cards. He was a regular columnist for The Daily Beast and The Daily Telegraph (London).
