The Trouble with Sarah Palin’s “Senators”

Carly Fiorina and Christine O’Donnell have the same political godmother: Sarah Palin, who has “endorsed” them for the midterm senatorial elections. Today, the blows rained down. Their political advertising is inappropriate. Should Mama Grizzly, the expert in this field, give her protégées a communications lesson?

Sarah Palin: mentor but not coach

At opposite ends of the country, California and Delaware, two women fight to win the Senate midterm election. They aren’t boxing in the same class. Carly Fiorina is the former president of Hewlett Packard, from 1999 to 2005, and advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger. Christine O’Donnell is a political unknown from nowhere. They are both trapped by their professional or personal past. Each has her own nightmare. And their video campaign appearances, unsurprisingly, suit them.

Carly Fiorina is a strong woman. She is vocal, and going up against Senator Barbara Boxer, keeps her chances high. According to a current Rasmussen poll, Boxer is leading by .8 percent — a very tight race. Political ads should work well for the former head of H.P., whose products rely on sophisticated and sharp marketing. But now, the opposite is happening. Fiorina has cemented her campaign with TV spots that are incomprehensible, complicated and disastrous, like the “Demon Sheep” during the primaries and “Hot Air,” where she refers to her opponent as an “it” — not very elegant. It’s precisely her communication that has caused a stir. A production company, Brave New Films, which produced anti-Republican documentaries (they followed the 2008 campaign against McCain), just put out a video series titled “The Real Carly.” The first ad shows former Hewlett Packard workers and attacks Fiorina as a job killer; so far, nothing but sad and banal. But Carly Fiorina did fire 30,000 employees by outsourcing their jobs, and received $100 million from a golden parachute. Nevertheless, Sarah Palin has supported her as the perfect candidate because “she knows how to really incentivize job creation.” You bet. Two other videos titled “The True Carly” further drove in the nail by talking about her links to the tea party and her very radical positions on immigration and support for Arizona. The Internet buzz is deadly. Jounalists didn’t see Fiorina at the last Sarah Palin rally…

Christine O’Donnell never would have gotten this far without the support of Sarah Palin. She goes way back. Even the story she produced about her life doesn’t conform to a truth that she alone knows. Among the inconsistencies, she even supported Barack Obama at some point during the presidential elections. Yet, her personal convictions are very far from those of the 44th president. She is pro-life and against immigration, taxes, Washington and sex (including masturbation) before marriage. In brief, she’s in line with Sarah. The holes in her resume are so well-known that we would find them touching if we weren’t from a country of systematic dirt-digging, pretty normal when you’re running for public office. We would like to indulge in the fantasy of an Oxford student under the “Studies” heading, but we can only detect a guilty immaturity. Her video clips claiming, “I am you” (I am like you) don’t help anything. And the main promise, “I am not a witch,” falls a little short. Will Delaware residents recognize themselves in this cheerful person? Reiterating that she is not a witch is a childish and very minimal qualification for filling the office of senator. As of now, she has appeared once on a Q&A show, and the Republicans are more than skeptical. The polls also give her Democratic opponent between 53 and 61 percent. They must be remembering the communications of the Nixon era, “I am not a crook,” or those of Bill Clinton, “I had no…” which resulted in some problems. So too will “I am not a witch.”