Reputation Management Online

America should have been talking about the Obama Health plan, instead the focus is on those two words of Joe Wilson (Representative for North Carolina) who shouted, against all decorum, at the President – “You Lie”.

Wow did he do himself some damage! Constituents like their politicians to be passionate, but they also like them to respect the country. Shouting at the president broke that taboo and with it he has done his reputation as a politician some serious damage. (see our articles on Politician’s Reputation Management for more on this).

Normally, politicians destroy themselves with women, wine or money or some combination of the two. Voters don’t like it, but sometimes they shrug it off with a, “typical…”

What a politician says is very different and impacts much more widely on the reputation and attitude of voters. Witness California’s Mike Duvall. What has upset people is not that he an affair (or two) but the derogatory way he discussed it with a colleague and was overheard doing it. That was low and has killed him.

So politicians protect your reputations as follows: it’s not what you do but what you say that matters. Its also what you don’t say or how you respond to questions that matters. Witness Teddy Kennedy’s failure to answer questions after Chappaquidick and the  uncomfortable body language that spoke volumes about his guilt.

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