CAIN CALAMITY

For a candidate who touts himself as a problem solver, Herman Cain is knee deep in a whopper problem of his own. If the way he has handled recent accusations of sexual harassment is an example of how he might react to issues on a global scale should he become President, then he may want to take a crash course in anger management and pay closer attention to his media trainer, assuming he has one.

In his recent confrontation with reporters, Cain came across as angry, defensive and argumentative. He actually yelled at reporters when they questioned harassment allegations. If he becomes President, will he yell at the media when they ask questions he doesn’t want to answer or he doesn’t agree with? He also looked down, instead of at the reporter. His lips tightened, making him look angry and clearly annoyed. And, instead of approachable, open body language, he pushed his hands outward which is aggressive body language and signals hostility and unfriendliness.

But body language is only part of the problem. Cain has escalated the media circus by changing his story, waffling on questions and failing to prepare. He said he didn’t remember? He said a lot of things have happened over the years and it wasn’t until he thought about it later that he started to recall. Seriously? Did he really think that allegations of inappropriate behavior and a reported payoff by the National Restaurant Association to a woman who complained that he acted inappropriately toward her would simply go away and never surface again? As a media trainer, I always tell people to make two lists. List one contains all the questions you expect. List two includes the questions you hope are never asked and that’s the list you better have answers for. Then, there is his choice of words. He’s aware of a financial agreement, but not a settlement? So here is what he must do:

a.       Determine his message and stick to it. If he had stayed on message from the start and looked people in the eye when he answered questions, he would have fared far better and come across as more believable, committed to what he was saying and sure of himself. Instead he is coming across as insincere, argumentative and contradictory, which threaten his credibility.

b.       Answer questions and put a lid on his agitated flip responses. When a reporter asked him if he was guilty of harassment, he did not answer right away and then, instead of answering, he spit the question right back at the reporter. This is almost like saying no comment and suggests that he may have something to hide.

c.      Do it quickly as he’s already lost too much time and as a result the story is being told by everyone except Cain.

Finally, the Cain train needs to learn from this harsh dose of reality so they don’t make the same mistakes again.

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