Rumsfeld’s Snowflakes, And What The Need To Over-Manage Public Opinion Really Means.

Last night, over at The New York Times’ “The Opinionator” blog, editors Tobin Harshaw and Chris Suellentropa offered a discussion about Rumsfeld’s (now famous) “snowflakes”: short memos he sent to his DoD staff. 20 to 60 short memos, a day.

My response, which I list below, in part because I’ve been needing to get this off my chest:

Two phrases we continually hear from the Bush administration:

“reshape public opinion” and “win hearts and minds.”

Someone needs to tell the administration that the huge amount of energy they expend on these propagandistic concepts means that they are wrong, and the American people (and most of the world) are right. If everyone disagrees with your assessment, there’s probably a good reason why.

Has there ever been an administration that was so media hungry? Have we ever seen a president, or top cabinet officials, so public? Is there a day that goes by that the president, or one of his minions, or press releases, is not in the news or on TV?

As president, if you have to be on camera every day, delivering your point of view, every day, telling people what you do, and why you do it, every day, something’s wrong. I seriously question why our president has so many news conferences. Who has that much time? When does he have time to be president, and not spokesperson?

Imagine working at the DoD, and getting 20 to 60 memos a day from Rumsfeld. Wouldn’t you just say, “oh, another memo…” and ignore it?

When it becomes necessary for a leader – in business, in politics, government, etc., to have so many press conferences, to send so many memos (20 to 60 a day?!?) to tell people what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, the weight of your words loses value. You’re no longer leading. You’re pleading.

Thoughts, questions, anyone?

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More on Rumsfeld’s snowflakes:
Robin Wright at The Washington Post: From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . .
The New Republic’s “The Plank”: Rummy Agonistes
rumsfeld snowflakes

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Tags: Bush, Culture & Politics, Department of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, rumsfeld snowflakes, snowflakes, The New York Times, The Washington Post