THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

REPETITION | 2004-10-09

Repetition takes incredible discipline. A politician would much rather show you how smart he is and how many things he knows. He doesn't like to look like a party hack. But if he doesn't repeat and repeat and repeat, he will not win.

So do you want to look good or do you want to influence national affairs?

Someone once asked Senator Fulbright what it took to be a great senator. Fulbright replied, "First, you have to be a senator."

So if you want to be a great senator, you have to repeat your message over and over and over.

As a matter of fact this is the lifeblood of all political professionalism.

It is called "Staying on message."

If you want to influence world affairs you have to make your point. You have to use every possible opening to make your point. You have to be sure nobody is able to avoid your point.

A professor friend of mine was overwhelmed by my ability to make Communists look like idiots. The minute a person said he was a Communist, I would say, "Why is it that every Communist country has to kill people who try to escape and America has to keep people out?"

There would be a long diatribe on the Evil West or something similar.

My response?

You guessed it

"Well, that doesn't quite deal with my point. My question was why is it that every Communist country has to kill people who try to escape and America has to keep people out?"

I remember once saying, "This is the eighteenth time I have asked this, but why is it that every Communist country has to kill people who try to escape and America has to keep people out?

It always worked. The one thing everybody listening to that conversation remembered was that every Communist country has to kill people to keep them there, and America has to keep them out. There was no answer to that.

Please note people did not go away from that thinking Bob Whitaker was a genius. They went away thinking Communism is a horror when it comes to human beings.

That was my purpose and I accomplished it.