TJ Walker (May 2016 livestream) analyzes why former House Speaker John Boehner's April 2016 attack on Senator Ted Cruz (calling him "Lucifer in the flesh" and "the most miserable son of a ...") became a massively circulated soundbite. Walker breaks the quote into many quotable elements (absolutes like "never", emotional adjectives like "miserable", analogies and humor), explains how who said it (a prominent conservative attacking another conservative) amplified coverage, and links the example to his media-training thesis that most quotable lines follow a limited set of speech patterns.
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So why was former Speaker John Boehner's attack on Senator Ted Cruz the perfect soundbite?
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So folks, I should clarify. There's really no such thing as a perfect sound bite in the abstract. I haven't talked to John Boehner, so I don't know if this is the quote he wanted or the message he wanted, but it certainly is a perfect soundbite from the standpoint of just irresistible to the media and getting massive, massive play. This quote came from statements John Boehner made in public in late April 2016. Here's what he said speaking of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Cruz is quote, lucifer in the flesh. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a and I'm going to spruce up the language here so I don't get this podcast banned in India and other countries with a more miserable son of a something that rhymes with witch in my life. That was the quote. And this quote generated massive, massive news coverage. Mainstream social media. I'm seeing it everywhere on my Facebook feed. The New York Times did a story about it front page on its website. It's getting massive coverage on. Why was this considered so quotable? I'm going to dissect this in explicit detail in just a moment so you have a true, true understanding of what makes something quotable.
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Those of you who've ever attended my media training workshops have heard me say this before. If you've read my books or been in any of my online courses, you know that I believe all quotes in tech stories, newspapers, all sound bites on TV news, radio news come from one of 10 speech patterns or collections of these speech patterns. Once you know what the speech patterns are, you know in advance what quotes will be used even before the interview starts. I have to believe that John Boehner is savvy enough in the ways of the media that he knew exactly what he was doing and how it would be quoted. So let's analyze it in explicit detail. For starters, saying that Senator Ted Cruz was, quote, lucifer in the flesh, well, it doesn't get much More attacking than that attack is one Lucifer, something well known in pop culture. The devil from the Bible in the flesh is a cliche. It's stated with an absoluteness to it and there's clearly a lot of emotion. So we're only four words in. We've got five sound bites so far. The next thing he said, I get along with almost everyone. Action oriented, the sixth sound bite. But I have never. Anytime you use the word never, it increases the odds of being quoted because never an absolute. Reporters can say this may happen or this happened, but when a politician or political figure or business person starts using never, always must, it's a trigger for reporters. So he says, I've never worked well, never is an absolute seventh sound bite worked. Action oriented with a more miserable. Miserable is a sound bite word. It's attacking and it's emotional. So that's what, eight, nine sound bites, Sarva. And then that word I can't say on this podcast or I get banned from all of India by itunes. Sarva, we shall say, which doesn't get much more attacking than that. Emotional than that. I guess you could say that's an analogy of sorts of too. So that's up to what, about 12 sound bite elements in my life? Again, there's an absoluteness to it, there's an emotion to it, and there's a clear cut attack. So by my accounting there, that is 15 sound bites in really just two brief sentences. There are some other factors in play as to why this quote was so widely disseminated and repurposed and repackaged. I'll go over that in a moment.
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Folks when you want to get quoted. If you're being interviewed by the media or you're giving a speech and reporters are present and you're hoping to get some attention, you don't have to pack 15 different sound bites into two sentences the way John Boehner did. But if you do, it sure increases your chances of getting quoted. And that's exactly what happened here. Now, there are other plays, there are other factors in play here. This didn't come from any politician. John Boehner was the long running speaker of the House. He was the highest ranking Republican official in the country for many, many years. So for him to say somebody who is a leading presidential candidate is Lucifer and the most miserable son of a. You know what is really very, very harsh and interesting to a lot of people. It's one thing if a Hillary Clinton supporter or a liberal or a Democrat, someone who's an ideological enemy of Ted Cruz, attacks him. But John Boehner is a well respected conservative. When you look at his voting record, he is down the line conservative. He is, by any meaningful definition of political labels in the United States, a conservative. So when one prominent, prominent conservative is attacking another prominent conservative, just saying worse than Lucifer, that's rare. I mean, it really doesn't happen. Sure, there are plenty of politicians, Democrat and Republican side, who have to work together with members of their own party. They may personally dislike that person, but they are very averse from ever publicly criticizing that person because they have to work together. They'd rather share that attack or keep that attack devoted to someone in the other political party for more political benefit. So when John Boehner attacks Ted Cruz with the gloves off, with absolute clarity, full viciousness, it strikes, by the way, the one sound bite element, I forgot to mention, humor. This strikes a lot of people as really, really funny. Now, you might not think it's funny, but certainly to a number of people in the, in the political landscape, they think such over the top attacks are pretty funny. So I should up the ante now to a total of 16 soundbite elements in that two sentence statement that Boehner made or the quote that was pulled out of his larger statements. So that's what's so interesting to people, is people like the story of the lovable politician everybody loves, but they also like the idea of a politician who is just considered miserable, nasty, detestable. There is that cliche of a politician and Ted Cruz falls right into it. And John Boehner is making the case. It's one thing that the so called liberal news media attacks Ted Cruz. It's one thing if Donald Trump, the main political adversary of Senator Cruz, says that he's dislikable, nobody likes him. But here's John Boehner, somebody who's no longer in power, not running for president, is a committed conservative, seemingly has no agenda other than electing a conservative president. To attack Ted Cruz at this level is, is an interesting news story in and of its own right. So it's not just the sound bites, it is the fact that who said it. There have been similar quotes from people like Ted Cruz's college roommate who said that Ted Cruz is literally the last person or the least you vote for any person on earth for president ahead of Ted Cruz. So there have been similar quotes from people who are outside the political system. About Ted Cruz, but nobody with sort of the insider clout and connections. Now, some of you can look at this and say, ah, well, tj, this is just an example of the liberal news media finding something where they can attack a good conservative. Maybe that may be part of it. Certainly I don't know any member of the traditional mainstream media or liberal media who finds Ted Cruz personally likable. So that could be an element. But no one at the New York Times or CBS just manufactured this quote from former Speaker John Boehner. He said it, there's evidence. He doesn't dispute it. And that's in part what makes it so interesting and makes it really the sound bite of the day, if not the week. When you're coming up with your own sound bites, remember, you don't have to attack someone or call them Lucifer, but if you do, you will be quoted. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. May all of your presentations in life be a huge success and I hope nobody calls you Lucifer.
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