TJ Walker breaks down how Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's "I don't know" answer about Obama's religion became a media firestorm. The full exchange was reasonable, but that single phrase got amplified into a smear. Walker explains why every word matters at the presidential level and how Scott Walker could have reframed it to avoid the headline.
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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the news for opining on religious beliefs of President Obama. So folks, those of you following presidential politics know that the Republican nomination is as wide open as it has ever been in the last 40 years and all sorts of candidates are getting scrutiny. One in particular who is perceived as top tier is Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, by the way. No relation to me. And so I do like analyzing some of the things he does because he does some things very, very well. Other things, it's a bit of a mixed bag. So here's what happened. He was asked whether he thought President Obama was a Christian over the weekend. Here was his response. I don't know. I've never actually talked about it. I haven't read about it. To me, you've asked me to make statements about people. I haven't had a conversation with about that. How could I know? How could I know if you are a Christian? To me, this is a classic example of why people hate Washington and increasingly they dislike the press. The things they care about don't even remotely come close to what you're asking about. People in the media will judge. Not everyday people. I would defy you to come to Wisconsin. You ask a hundred people and not one of them would say this is a significant issue. So that was his answer as quoted by the Washington Post. And I would argue that there are a number of good things in that answer. But there's also a big problem with that answer. Here's the problem. He said, I don't know. So what's the headline of the Washington Post? Mediaite, other websites, Governor Scott Walker, I don't know. End quote. If Obama is a Christian, it seems like a complete attack. It seems like a smear. It seems as though Governor Walker is pandering to the far right extremist Obama haters in his own party and just being a bit of a demigod. But if you listen to the whole thing, it sounds completely reasonable and I would argue reasonable to people of all parties across the ideological spectrum. But that's the problem when it comes to the media. You can do nine tenths of things perfectly and you only have one bad spot. That's what's going to get amplified if you're going to be president. You have to learn that. Now there's still plenty of time for Scott Walker to improve his media skills because he's certainly not the worst of a lot amongst his competitors. Here's where he went wrong. The second he said, I don't know, he set himself up for a headline that seemed to be questioning the integrity and the core values of the president. That's an implied attack, and reporters are going to fall for that every time. How should he have answered? I think his second half of the answer was perfect. By the way, I don't know the chronology of how these quotes came out because I didn't see the full clip and I wasn't there. But if he had simply answered. Well, let me just demonstrate. The reporter says, Governor Walker, you've heard Rudy Giuliani questioning Obama, loving this country, his beliefs. Do you think that President Obama is a Christian? What he should have said. And here I'm just going to read back to you exactly what Walker did say in part. To me, this is the classic example of why people hate Washington. And increasingly they dislike the press. The things they care about don't even remotely come close to what you're asking about. You could go to 100 people in Wisconsin and ask them what their concerns were. This wouldn't be one of them. If Walker had just answered the question like that, he would have gotten universal praise. He would have appealed to people all across the spectrum in his own party, but all across the spectrum in American politics, and there wouldn't have been any headline making it seem like a cheap shot attack. Now, you can certainly make the case that reporters took out of context his statement. I don't know. But you know what? You want to play in the big leagues when you're talking to reporters, Everything you can be taken out of, everything you say can be taken out of context. It is your job, if you want to be a successful presidential candidate, to talk in such a way that it doesn't matter how you quote it out of context, you still win. So he had the right answer. He just had too much other stuff on the way to getting there. I'm TJ Walker. Post your company.
