Congress Pulls a Putney

It's a good time to be in the persuasion business.   I keep saying that to myself.  And I'm beginning to believe it.

Practically everyone came down on Congress today, criticizing the House for failing to pass a bill that, despite its odor, has a consensus of supporters, on the left and the right.   Strikes me that yesterday's vote rejecting the $700-plus billion bailout -- precipitating a 700-plus point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial average -- was evidence of a massive communications challenge, not an intellectual challenge, as many unenlightened people have charged.  Consider:

--there appears to be a consensus in Congress that the bailout is needed, in some form or another (modifications were within reach)

--still, a majority rejected the bill

--practically everyone seemed surprised yesterday.  Few expected this result.

Reminds me of a film ... again.  Earlier this week, I looked at a couple of films that provide us with ways to examine the actors in the presidential race.    I am now thinking of Putney Swope, the famously bad 60's cult film by Robert Downey (father of Robery Downey Jr.) that opens at a Madison Avenue board meeting where the chief executive drops dead from a heart attack.   The executive team conducts  a secret ballot to select a successor.  No one believes that Putney Swope -- the lone black exec--  has a chance of winning, yet they all vote him him.  Is it their wish, what they actually desire as the outcome?  Who knows, but it's clear that they never believed it would happen.  The rest of this grainy B&W film is played out in hilarious living color (literally -- the outrageous commercials that the new agency creates are all in color -- like Oz -- while the main narrative of the film continues in B&W).  It is certainly not what Putney's peers expected, but it delights Downey's target audience who never liked admen to begin with.  Justice is done.

More and more, we are learning about the limits of our government to deal with complex communication issues.  Here's hoping that "pulling a Putney" makes it into the political comms lexicon.