For The Defense, December 2012 - DRI Today

2012 AnnuAl Meeting the 21st Century lawyer
Karen Hughes Dee Dee Myers
Hughes and Myers: A Point/Counterpoint
on the Political Landscape
Thursday morning’s keynote speakers included
Karen Hughes, a senior strategist
with Burson- Marsteller, a former counselor
to President George W. Bush from 2001 to
2002, leading the Offices of Communications,
Press Secretary, Media Affairs, and
Speechwriting, and a U.S. Department of
State Under Secretary of State for Public
Diplomacy from 2005 to 2008, and Dee
Dee Myers, a contributing editor to Vanity
Fair magazine, a frequent political commentator,
and the first woman and one of
the youngest people ever to serve as White
House Press Secretary during the first part
of the Clinton administration. Focusing
their discussion on the upcoming election,
Ms. Myers expected that after a “late
night” President Obama would win reelection,
defying historical precedent to
become the first president to achieve reelection
despite a bad economy. She attributed
this forecasted win to several factors.
First, voters wanted a president who they
felt understood them, which had become a
great presidential race outcome predictor.
A voter asks, “Will this person making decisions
act in my interest?,” and unlike the
president, people perceived Mitt Romney
as more upper than middle class. Second,
the electoral map favored President Obama,
8 ■ For The Defense ■ December 2012
she said. Demographics have changed to
give the Democrats an edge. People of color,
young people, and single women accounted
for this edge. Third, the Obama campaign
mounted a voter turnout effort that would
change the way that candidates win campaigns,
focusing during the Republican Primary
on urging occasional voters to vote
early and then attending to regular voters
later in the campaign. And 2–1, early voters
had favored the president. Ms. Meyer also
predicted that the Democrats would hold
the Senate while the Republicans would
hold the House. Ms. Hughes also evaluated
how campaigns have changed. In her
view, the presidential debate became more
influential during this campaign than previously
in her lifetime. Before the first debate,
voters “didn’t know there was a viable
option,” although they had become dissatisfied
with the president, she believed. Noting
that it’s very difficult to beat an incumbent,
“The first debate fundamentally altered the
campaign,” she said. And, as a whole, the
debates revealed the philosophical differences
between the two candidates, reflecting
“a deep divide across the country.” The
2008 Obama campaign “was about growth
and change.” But after winning the election,
the president’s “actions undercut these two
themes,” Ms. Hughes believed, and the debate
undercut the themes further. The two
speakers agreed that the election revolved
around jobs and the economy, but they
differed on the extent to which the candidates
could address those issues. When
asked how they would have handled the
attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in
Benghazi as press secretary, both speakers
commented that sifting through competing
facts to provide accurate information
poses big challenges as situations unfold
and in the immediate aftermath. And Ms.
Myers remarked, “If you slow down information
giving, it looks like you’re not transparent.”
“You’re getting all kinds of reports,”
Ms. Hughes said, mentioning that on 9/11
the White House remained silent for four
hours while attempting to sort them out.
“The press values speed over accuracy,” she
remarked, adding that she believed that it
did not help to politicize an international
political situation, generating enthusiastic
applause. When asked about Washington
gridlock, the keynote speakers also agreed
that the country was sick of it. In concluding,
Ms. Myers said, “Here’s how we can
fix it: put all the women leaders in a room,
close the door, and get it done,” which also
generated enthusiastic applause.