Submitted by Tom Shardlow, Jan 9, 2007 15:34

The Republican party is not in trouble with the general electorate because it has "difficulty in clearly communicating their agenda to the public." Republicans have lost their majority because they have failed to produce real results. The Republican Administration has been brilliant with its communication ("spin" if you prefer).

The administrations communications concerning the war in Iraq present the best, although certainly not the only example. President Bush has done a masterful job in convincing the American people that the war in Iraq was essential, that the Iraqi government was responsible for the 9/11 attack, that the Iraqi government possessed weapons of mass destruction and that those weapons endangered us, that the costs of the war would be low in casualties and money, that we have been winning the war, that Iraq was moving forward in establishing a stable secular democracy, etc. The problem has not been with communication, it has been with delivery. But even the most brilliant communications could not hide forever the fact that the situation in Iraq was quickly deteriorating.

So now we have a "New Way Forward." But, the American people will not buy it, not because it will not be presented to them artfully through the use of the Luntz's ten principles of good communication, but because the slogan will come from the mouth of someone whose promises and assurances have turned out to be hollow, time and again.

As a lifelong Republican I hope that we turn around the public's increasingly poor view of the party. But, we will have to do it by producing real successes in governing the country. At the end of the day, the use of good principles of communication is worthless if you have nothing worthwhile to say.

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