|
| |
|
Harry Reid Is Too Stupid To Know He's Stupid By Dr. Donald W. Hendon Harry Reid, Democratic Senator from Nevada and the Senate Majority Leader, is too stupid to know he’s stupid. He will probably lose his re-election bid because seems to have forgotten how to influence voters. Probable reasons: Cowardice and stupidity. On September 24, he was afraid to debate Republican Sharron Angle face-to-face in Las Vegas. Instead, he demanded and got the questions ahead of time, videotaped his answers, and sent them to the “debate.” (Yes, this was the infamous “debate” where a fight broke out between his supporters and Angle’s supporters.) Angle wasn’t a coward—she showed up and answered questions. I think it was a stupid mistake for Reid to “debate” by not debating. This was a cowardly thing to do. I live in Mesquite, Nevada, and so I keep up with political events in Nevada. This wasn’t the first time Reid has shown cowardice and stupidity. He snuck into Mesquite on August 24 to preach to the choir, then snuck out again quickly. No advance notice, no publicity. Mesquite has 19,000 people and is only 80 miles from Las Vegas. It’s a resort-retirement community on the Arizona border. Mostly “snowbirds,” people from cold northern cities who spend winters in Mesquite and go back up north when temperatures hit 110 degrees in the Mojave Desert summer. Lots of gated communities, older population, conservative. The news media in Mesquite and Las Vegas didn’t know he was coming until about an hour before his scheduled 11:30 am arrival. So there was absolutely no publicity. The Democratic Party sponsored his secret visit. Reid and the Party was using defensive tactic 25 in my new book, 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. This tactic is called Adopt a Fortress Mentality. The Party notified 250 loyal Democrats by e-mail. His office told them he would speak to the faithful at 11:30 at the newest hotel in town, Falcon Ridge. I found out about it through the grapevine. (Leaking Information by the Grapevine is defensive tactic 24 in my book.) I showed up at 11:30, only because I heard the event was a free sit-down luncheon with 4 courses. I like freebies. It was hard for me to get in, though, since his gatekeepers had a siege mentality. They were admitting only those who were on their official list. I lied twice—told them I was a Democrat, and told them I had recently moved to Mesquite. They reluctantly let me in, after adding my name to their mailing list. About 60 people were there. All Celebrity Groupies. The Reid handlers made dumb mistake, number 33 in my book, Put Your Visitor in an Uncomfortable Chair We all sat on hard folding chairs in a large room, and waited. And waited. And waited. No announcements from the people in charge. For some strange and stupid reason, they were using defensive tactic 52, Withhold Important Information. At 12:30, I left, picking up a couple of stale sandwiches and a soft drink from a folding table in the back of the room. That was all the food offered. (Reid was using dirty trick 42, The Caterer from Hell: Really Bad Food and Drink.) On my way out, I asked in a loud voice, “Where’s the 4-course sit-down meal?” All I got was a bunch of dirty looks from the gatekeepers at the entrance who tried to keep out anybody except true believers. When they lied about the 4-course meal, Reid and the Democrats were using a combination of two dirty tricks in my book: Liar, Liar, Your Pants Are on Fire (trick 54) and Bait-and-switch (trick 16). My grapevine source tells me about half the crowd left shortly after I did. Where was Reid? He was at the hotel the whole time. He was hiding out in a different function room where he had a closed-door meeting with 8 retired people. My grapevine source told me the chosen few got the 4-course meal. Plus a lot of lies and condescending remarks from Reid. When I walked toward my car, some of Reid’s bodyguards looked at me suspiciously. I asked them, “What happened to the guy? Was he hitch-hiking from Las Vegas and nobody wanted to pick him up?” More dirty looks. A very hostile atmosphere. The whole affair reminded me of dirty trick 38, The Power of Arrogance: Frightening Atmospherics. In my opinion, Reid wasn’t trying to influence anybody when he escaped from Vegas to go to Mesquite. He was just Feeding His Ego, which is defensive tactic 67. As his pal, Barney Frank, a Democrat in the House of Representatives, said in August, “We’re professional people who are used to affection. This voter discontent is almost disorienting.” I guess Harry’s ego needed boosting, because he is now slightly behind in the polls here in Nevada in his re-election campaign. I think he was simply escaping from his troubles by preaching to his loyal choir. This is defensive tactic 27, Get Lost for Awhile. But I don’t think he should have inconvenienced so many people who were waiting for him. Getting Others Angry at You on Purpose is a dumb mistake. And stupidly arrogant. Conclusion: My assertive tactic 11 is subtitled It’s Smart to Know When You’re Stupid. In my opinion, Reid is too stupid to even know that he’s stupid. Is he too stupid to know he’s a coward, too? # # # # # # # # # # # # Noted consultant and seminar-giver Donald Hendon is
the author of 365 Powerful
Ways to Influence (Pelican, 2010).
In it, you learn to use 121 aggressive tactics, 92 defensive
tactics, 24 cooperative tactics, 16 submissive tactics, and 81 dirty
tricks to get what you want from other people—plus 31 tactics to prepare
you for your interaction with them.
Learn more at
www.donaldhendon.com.
Download chapter 1 there, free of charge.
|