TJ Walker breaks down why election-night speeches matter for politicians. He recommends candidates prepare both victory and concession speeches beforehand, and shows how these moments can define careers, using Romney and Nixon as examples.
Speaking with TJ Walker, the show where we dissect how and what world class leaders communicate.
All right, folks, this is the last full day of campaigns, campaigning and campaign speeches of 2016 in the United States. Tomorrow is the election day. Polls close at various times throughout the country. California, they'll close at the end, but it's not going to be a full day of campaigns and campaign speeches tomorrow. So this is it. Tomorrow night. Election night is one of the most fascinating evenings for anyone who cares about speaking presentations and media skills. Because this is the night where you see everybody, presidential candidates, top media figures, analysts, Senate candidates, gubernatorial candidates. Your local city council person is proudly going to get a little airtime on your local abc, cbs, NBC news station. Now a lot of you are saying, wow, can't wait for this election to be over. This is the nastiest, most vicious, most disgusting election in most people's personal memories. And yeah, some people say, well, in 1800 it was a little nasty maybe, but not a lot of us have had to live through the campaign in 1800. And we certainly didn't have to see Presidential candidates in 1800 putting out nasty things on Twitter or being secretly recorded as they get off an Entertainment Tonight bus. So that does make this a little bit different. So here's my challenge to you. Even if you're utterly sickened and disgusted by American politics, spend Tuesday night watching. You can switch back. I don't care if you watch fox, cnn, msnbc, BBC, Al Jazeera, whatever is your channel of joy at pbs. Watch as many speeches as possible because this is a time when you often see candidates, politicians, office holders at their best or their worst. Some people, when they lose, they give a concession speech that's so gracious, so compelling, so dynamic, it makes you think, wow, I hope this person runs again. Other times you hear someone give a speech and they're so petty, so nasty, your only reaction is, thank goodness this person lost and we won't ever have to see this person again in public life. A lot of politicians don't realize how many eyeballs are on them. For many of them, if you lose, it could be the very last time you ever have a sizable audience or a huge percentage of your constituents or voters really listening to you. So it is important. Mitt Romney famously didn't have a concession speech until just a couple of minutes before he started. In 2012, it's always a good idea to have a speech ready, win or lose. And so if you say, well, TJ isn't that bad luck, aren't you jinxing yourself if you write a concession speech in advance? No, you're not jinxing yourself. You're simply being prepared. So I recommend I don't have any candidates in this race, but I do work with political candidates from time to time and have worked with hundreds of them over the years. And I always recommend have a speech ready for either scenario. You will not regret. May be the largest audience you face in the whole campaign. Now, in the case of a presidential candidate, obviously you're going to get a huge audience for the debates. And when it comes to level of scrutiny, not much can top presidential debates, especially the first presidential debate in any season. Still, whether you're Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, election night is going to be the biggest audience you face for quite a while. Now, whoever wins the race is obviously going to have a huge audience for the next four years. And for annual State of the Union addresses and inaugurals, that person is going to get a lot of attention. But the election night speech often sets the tone. If you seem petty, mean, vicious, vindictive, if you're seen as, you know, rubbing it in the face of an opponent who's down, it could just brand you as not a class act. Richard Nixon famously in 1962, this is after he narrowly narrowly lost the 1960 election against John F. Kennedy. Nixon ran for governor of California, lost, and his press conference the next day famously said, well, at least you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. And it really cemented his reputation in the eyes of the media, a lot of voters, as somebody bitter, unpleasant, dark. Now, he still became president six short years later. He was reelected in a massive, massive landslide election in 1972. So it obviously didn't taint him to the point of destroying his career, but it did create an opening for people to form judgments about him, his dark side that he never really got over. Now, without delving into and relitigating all the nastiness of the current 2016 campaign, I can tell you there is going to be heightened scrutiny this year, what the loser has to say on election night. And I think I speak for all Americans when I say please, regardless of who wins, can we please make it enough of a swing on election night so that we actually know who won. In the current political environment, the last thing in the world we want is a rehash of, of 2000 when it really took a month before anybody knew who was going to be the next President of the United States. That was absolute agony. And I wasn't working closely in the campaign. I Remember one of the very first campaigns I worked on as an intern for a congressional candidate in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I was just a volunteer working for a guy named DG Martin. Great guy. And election night, there was only a couple hundred votes difference. And at this point, more than 30 years later, I can't even remember if we were ahead or behind election night. But everything was pins and needles, and it was days and days and days, and I think a few recounts before it was finally decided that my guy lost. And again, memories can get a little fuzzy. It could have been 92 votes, could have been 300 votes. But the point is, it was such a ridiculously small margin. And just that feeling of not knowing is awful. And speaking of dg, he was very gracious, positive, upbeat, pleasant guy, got the nomination again and again, two years later, lost narrowly. So, folks, not everything is about good public speaking and gracious concession speeches, but they do help form public opinion about an official. If it's Hillary Clinton who loses. And, folks, I'm not making predictions here. I'm simply going through every possible scenario. I think it's pretty safe to say this would be her last campaign. She will be 70 in less than a year. She'll have been on the national stage since 92, and she's run for president twice. I really cannot imagine her running again. But you never know. Donald Trump, who is 70, I certainly can imagine him running again. And regardless if he wins or loses, I do see him as a spokesperson for a new political movement in America. I'll leave it to the rest of you to figure out whether I think that's a good thing or not. But there's no doubt that he is articulating a new brand, Republicanism. It's not exactly conservatism. It's not in step with what traditional nominees have had or the party elders want. And therefore, I don't think he's going away. Whether it morphs into Trump tv, a lot of pros and cons on that and speculation, I'm not sure anyone's thought that all the way through. But one thing we do know after this election is Donald Trump can command attention. And he has a fierce army of supporters. And anything he says, particularly if it's considered wildly offensive to a lot of people, is going to be loved, admired, retweeted by millions of other people. So I think his, let's just say, hypothetically, he gives a concession speech tomorrow night. I think that is going to set a tone for where he wants to go and what he wants to do next and the level of his involvement and participation. So stay tuned. It's going to be an interesting, exciting time. I'll be coming to you. I'm recording this on the Friday before the election. This show goes live Monday morning, Tuesday morning. We won't have any results yet, so I'll be talking about other issues. But right after the returns come in, I'll be analyzing all the speeches. And that will go live on the podcast feed at 12:30 Eastern Time Wednesday morning. And I'll also be doing near live commentary for my YouTube channel@YouTube.com mediatraining if you're a public speaking junkie, communications politics junkie, it does doesn't get any better than this or worse than this or both. But it is almost over. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. See you tomorrow and especially the next day.
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