It’s not just the name of an old Simon and Garfunkel song. It’s a way to achieve political success, too.
Two anecdotes, from two sides of the political divide.
Several eons ago, this writer was a speechwriter for Jean Chretien. It was kind of like being the Maytag Repairman, to be honest. Jean Chretien doesn’t ever need any help in crafting a political tub-thumper. He’s pretty good at that all on his own.
One day, however, our opponents were saying all kinds of nasty things about the then-Liberal leader. The subject matter doesn’t matter. What mattered was Chretien’s abject refusal to say anything back. Why, Boss, I asked him.
“We don’t have to be in the damn paper every day, young man,” he said. “People don’t like it. They want to hear from us when it’s important. But not all the time. Silence is good.”
Another anecdote, from the other side of the aisle.
Not as long ago, my good friend John Walsh was the president of the Conservative Party. As such, he’d periodically meet with then prime minister Stephen Harper.
Two times, he did, and Harper held up a newspaper and pointed at a column by — this is the best part of the anecdote, in my opinion — Yours Truly. Both columns talked about how the then-presidents of the Liberal Party of Canada, who shall remain nameless, were in the media way, way too much.
“See what Kinsella said?” Harper asked John Walsh. “He said nobody can name the president of the Conservative Party, and that’s how we know how good at your job you are.”
[…]
