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With the new White House staff announced and things beginning to move toward a new administration on January 20 (save the date, Donald), it is reasonable to wonder what communications will be like in the Biden White House.
In a few words: There will be some, as opposed to the nothingburgers served up by a succession of nothingburger-flippers—some of whom had the lifespan of a fruit fly—during the four years of the Trump Administration.
In another word: Boring. But, as a pundit gleefully proclaimed on CNN recently, “boring is the new thrilling!”
Under the watchful eye of seasoned pros like Ron Klain and Jen Psaki, communications are likely to be factual, detailed, consistent and frequent. But not at all in the campaign-rally style of the 45th president, because Joe Biden isn’t likely to be running for anything at age 81 (Oh Lord, please not).
Boring is okay. Boring is different. Boring means that government is working closer to where it should be, because government is supposed to be boring. Lifers toiling away and counting the days until they can retire, not unlike the insurance industry. No drama, no sudden reversals, no puerile character assassination, no firefights or trench digging resulting from a constant Twitter stream of lies and misstatements.
CNN and MSNBC executives are reported to be a bit uneasy about what life will be like after Trump blows town to conduct his shadow presidency at Mar-a-Lago, possibly taking Wormtongue Stephen Miller with him to serve as advisor and mouthpiece, but the rest of us should rejoice.
Yes, boring is thrilling. We may tire of Joe Biden in as little as 180 days because after all, he had eight years at the top of government, but he is the president, and we can all rest a little easier for that.
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Bill Huey is founder and president of Strategic Communications, a corporate and marketing communication consultancy. He is the author of two novels and a new one-act play dealing with the #Me Too Movement, “The Tiger of the Flesh.”
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Dec. 23, 2020, by Joe Honick
As usual, Bill Huey nails the reality. But comes now a new breach in the Trump communications process that will play havoc with Biden. We now learn that Trump has ordered that the process of democracy be still more endangered by stopping his successor from getting imperative intelligence briefings. Anyone with the slimmest knowledge of such matters knows what an egregious action this is and, frankly, close to treasonous for its aid and comfort to our known enemies.
Of still greater interest, if not shameful, is the fact that the now Acting Secretary of Defense who ordered the shutdown, has been joined, not by Trump, but the president's "Campaign Manager" in the announcement. What a "campaign manager" has to do with access to such sensitive policy announcements should be grist for a Republican Senate leader who has successfully allowed a scrawny aid bill for the newly impoverished to escape Congress and beg for a presidential signature.
That's right, unless Trump can find his free Sharpie pen and sign so he can wave his folder brief and boast of his "generosity(?)" no checks get printed and mailed!