In which my theory stinks

[dsrtao]

I have a general theory of public actions (i.e. things that governments, politicians, corporations and large organizations do) which says that one ought to ignore what they say about their actions and treat the actual effects as though they were the actual goals. That is, all PR is lies, assume competent decision making creating desired outcomes.

The Republican Presidential candidates seem to be ignorant of my theory. Are they all incompetent as well as evil*?

*Evil by my standards, but still. Campaigning on an anti-contraception platform? Talking about your wife's two Cadillacs in this economy?

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Campaigning on your faith is fine - even if you are more dogmatic about your faith than 90% of your fellow practitioners. It's at least personally consistent, if not goal-oriented.

Romney's faith is also strong, and I gather that one of the sub-texts of the Mormon faith is that God will reward the good in this life, as well as the next. There is no shame in his general culture, in being very successful. There is no shame amongst the well-to-do, in being well-to-do.

The remarkable thing about Romney is not how often he says he's rich: it's how often he does NOT remind people that he's rich.

The glare of the spotlight is on these guys, and their "worst moment each day" is being reported. If you think about what they are doing as 24/7 improv, they really do a remarkable job of sticking to the message, almost all the time.