In the 1990’s, both Clinton presidential campaigns and the Clinton administration developed a rapid response system to defend itself and attack opponents when their opponents made political or personal attacks. The system was run with an almost machine-like precision, and Clinton ended up winning two presidential campaigns - he even survived the Monica Lewinsky scandal, reports Jonathan Trenn of Blog the Campaing ’08. Today’s campaigns are being launched earlier than ever. And with the advent of YouTube and other social media applications the chance of a candidate or campaign staffers or political supporters screwing up in public has become almost inevitable (as we has seen so many times lately). Therefore, according to Trenn, political campaigns are going to have to develop rapid response strategies to meet with these screw-ups.
Trenn:
“Whether it’s an apology from a candidate, a firing of a staffer, or a distancing from an idiot like (Ann) Coulter, the response will - or at least should be - rapid.”
I couldn’t agree more, and if you ask me the best tool to use when responding rapidly to attacks will in many cases prove to be exactly YouTube.