You know the drill. Politician screws-up; has to convene his
inner circle; they commence a protracted and secret dialogue to decide
what to do about it and eventually, some times days, weeks or even
months later, the admission of guilt comes.
Think Bill Clinton and Monica what's-her-name.
Say hello to David Palmer who just proved you can do this
turnaround in a matter of hours. Smart guy this Mr. Palmer.
Palmer is on a mission to win the house seat soon to be vacated
by Rep. Alma Wheelr Smith and as such, he found himself handing his
card to a capitol correspondent as the two got on the elevator just off
the house floor.
It was not out of the ordinary. A picture of the bearded Mr.
Palmer with an engaging smile on his mug and over there on the left, in
bold print his name David Palmer.
Underneath it, in smaller print, it read, "State Representative
54th District."
The reporter thought for a second, this guy's been in town for 18
months and this the first time Rep. Palmer has appeared on the radar
screen?
Something didn't compute.
Finally, this exchange as the smarty pants reporter finally
figured it out. "This state representative thing is interesting" in
that you are not the state representative.
Palmer sort of chuckled as the elevator had reached its appointed
stop and off he went into the night.
About three hours later this unsolicited email arrived.
"I've asked by graphic designer to add the word "for" on my card
so that it would now read David Palmer for state representative. Funny
thing what one tiny little word can do.
Palmer got it even though he confesses a "fairly large and
diverse group of supporters" looked at the thing and raised no
objections. But upon quick reflection he concludes, "It could be
misleading.
So into the recycling bin goes 950 of the 1000 newly printed
calling cards.
Making a mistake, correcting the mistake, and not taking a life
time to do it.
Mr. Clinton and other more experienced pols, are you listening?