Giuliani’s PR Mistakes: Didn’t Manage Expectations; Created Must-win Scenario

For lawyers, the first rule is to never ask a question in court that you don’t know the answer to.

For politicians, the first rule is to never leave yourself only one option.

Rudolph Guiliani Giuliani and his campaign team forgot that rule, and it looks like it will cost him any chance of becoming the Republican presidential nominee.

So much of politics is about negotiation, adapting to emerging situations and finding a scenario that, if it doesn’t look like a victory, at least doesn’t look like a defeat, either.

Instead of Barack Obama being the “roll the dice” candidate this year, it turned out to be Giuliani, who established Florida as a must-win primary.

Note to Rudy: you don’t get to choose your victories. You take them when they come, and you act like it was all part of your plan.

In other circumstances, a poor showing in Florida could have been a minor setback. Giuliani’s team made sure that a poor showing in Florida would be a three-alarm fire. Would the last one off the bus please pull the fire alarm?

Photo by Mark Nozell, used under a Creative Commons licence.

Update: First rule for bloggers – spell the name right!