MANCHESTER, N.H. (Jan. 6)
Spin room. Spin Doctors. Spin the images.
It’s a tradition at debates like the ones here at St. Anselm College Saturday night. After the candidates leave the stage, their spinmeisters take over to paint the best possible picture of how well the candidates did.
In the college gym, volunteers surrounded each spin doctor to tell the flock of journalists who this doctor would spin for. Here’s longtime Democratic political activist Ann Lewis — spinning for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[“When she says she’s going to do something, she does it. She works at it. She talks about it but she does the action.” Ann Lewis]
For the feisty former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, there was this image from former Congressman David Bonior.
[“I think John Edwards’s freshness and newest and his toughness with respect to the pharmaceutical and oil and health insurance industry will resonate in people not only in Iowa but certainly here in New Hampshire and elsewhere.” David Bonior]
On the Republican side, the spinners were also out in force. Here’s how the debate looked to Kevin Madden, press secretary for Mitt Romney .
[“I think voters at home judge these debates on who talks about the issues they care about. I think far and away the candidate that did the most tonight was Mitt Romney.” Kevin Madden]
With the idea of change hot this election, John McCain’s Senior Advisor Charlie Black was pitching his candidate as the man who can make change happen.
[“John McCain is in fact an agent for change in Washington. He has accomplished more changes than one senator than anyone else. So think what he can do for president.” Charlie Black]
So why do all this spinning? Jennifer Lucas, a political scientist at Saint Anslem College, says that the campaigns have to get their message out even to folks who don’t watch the debates.
[“I think it’s unfortunately necessary. I think that it would be great if everyone would watch the debate, came up with their own version of winners and losers but that’s not going to happen.” Jennifer Lucas]
Republicans continue their ongoing debates, with another round sponsored Sunday by Fox News.
This is Joyce Ogirri reporting for WATD News, Election 2008, Manchester, New Hampshire.
(Joyce Ogirri, a broadcast journalism graduate student, is covering the New Hampshire primaries for WATD Radio in Marshfield, Mass.)
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