Tony Coelho Quotes

Ball had conducted a major study of Political Consultants and their effect on campaign success.

McGovern partisans were hostile to the Congressman in his own home district:

This has been a problem for not only Presidents and Governors, but all managers and administrators. When to terminate a subordinate who is not performing adequately. There is always the chance that the new appointee is no better or possibly even worse.

even though in this case the objective The State Department, the Defense Department and most important President Kennedy had decided to get rid of Diem. Most of the Central Intelligence Agency thought that this was a very unwise policy, because Diem was a known risk, and the people who would replace him and their talents and policies were unknown. The negatives of Diem—the facts that he, a Christian, was persecuting the majority Buddhists, was totally corrupt, and not a very good leader was less distressful to the CIA than to the President and the other agencies as the intelligence agency frequently not only tolerated “offensive” allies, but actually employed them including war criminals. Another importance of this quotation is that it shows that it was by no means certain that the CIA would always follow the orders of the President and the government policy makers. Colby, who was not the agency director at that time but was the head of the South East Bureau, was one high level official who argued that the policies should always be followed even if they were unwise or foolish. Another importance of this quotation is that it illustrate a common error that administrations are frequently forced to make: making a policy decision to eliminate a problem while not having much of an idea of what the alternative or consequence would be when the policy is implemented. The Syrian Civil War in 2013 was a good example. The Government side appeared to have used Chemical Warfare on Civilians and public opinion demanded that we do something. However, having a no-fly zone or any of the alternatives to prevent (punish) the government for the Chemical Warfare would strengthen the rebel side which was made up of numerous factions—some of which were known Islamic fundamentalist terrorists and jihadists. If the balance of power were tipped toward the rebels, the consequence for the American national interests were unknown—just as the consequence of ousting Diem was unknown and turned out to also be bad and was probably worse.

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.

Many Democrats constantly cast blame on Republicans for a combination of campaign strategy and tactics ranging from Gerrymandering to attacking individual opponents, accusing opponents of being weak on crime, defense and strong on raising taxes and giving welfare even when not true. Attacks on personal foibles and morality were some of the most effective especially coupled with untrue facts. The approach enabled the Republicans to win Congressional elections over and over again. Clinton urged, dealing with it and attacking the Republicans rather than complain. Political campaigning became very nasty and negative with almost no discussion of issues and policy.

The really good campaign consultants / strategists, take the reality of the candidate identity and get the most out of the strengths. Attempts to remake of reshape the candidate almost always fail.