His article focuses on what political scientists have been saying all along- the rules affecting the way that campaigns are presented to the public have changed because of new developments in technology.
King details the "new" advance men rules- rules have have been affected by new campaign strategies and new ways for voters to gain information about candidates.
Some of these rules are quite obvious in their importance:
Advance Rule No. 1: On Game Day, details left to chance will turn ugly.
Put on your game face and always be prepared, don't leave any stone unturned or else something unplanned might happen.
Advance Rule No. 2: Once you pick your site, you own it, so choose with care.
Pick a site that is not too big because...
Advance Rule No. 3: The camera should never show empty seats.
Empty seats make it look like you don't have enough support as you should.
Advance Rule No. 5: Human backdrops should smile and not snooze.
Smiling supporters = they are interested in what you have to say.
Advance Rule No. 6: Expansive wide shots cover more front-page newspaper columns.
More publicity, more front pages = more support and more outreach.
Advance Rule No. 13: A front-page article is worth a thousand words, maybe more.
Maybe a thousand votes?
Advance Rule No. 8: Some camera angles turn politics into public art.
It's all about how the public interprets the picture of the candidate.
Advance Rule No. 15: Flashes of presidential bearing should be shot in hi-def.
Always gotta look good for the voters
Advance Rule No. 16: Postproduction is the new rapid response.
The faster the output, the more people you can reach.
Advance Rule No. 11: Don't talk to the press unless you're telling them, politely, where to stand.
The press record everything, the press are biased, piss them off and you can be sure that they will not like your candidate very much.
Advance Rule No. 12: You just gotta make things happen on the fly.
Things change, you have to be able to adapt to that or else the candidate will look bad.
Advance Rule No. 19: Position an aid at the back of the room to cue applause with a few quick claps; the crowd with always follow.
Don't force the candidate to make the mistake of asking for applause... Fred Thompson.
Advance Rule No. 18: Use every available channel to define your candidate visually.
A picture speaks a thousand words, a new program appearance speaks millions.
Advance Rule No. 20: Turn off cell phones and pagers when speaking in public.
It's common courtesy, not that Guiliani would know anything about that.
Some hilarious rules come based on previous campaign advance failures.
Advance Rule No. 4: A candidate dons headgear at his perils.
Don't to anything that could embarrass you in the future of the campaign.
Advance Rule No. 7: You get paid in memories- and even the bad ones are valuable.
Everything you do is documented by the press, don't make any mistakes that could cost you the election.
Advance Rule No. 9: Music can define a candidate, for better or worse. No hip-hop, please, in Iowa.
Funny now, Clinton exits to KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See"- that's a song about a woman who is trying to tell the world that she is a lesbian. Hmm...
Advance Rule No. 10: Brushes with the law get you a one-way ticket home.
Don't break the law, you are running a political campaign and are in the public eye!
Advance Rule No. 14: Beware the perils of the live mic!
You really don't want the public to hear the behind the scenes (or anything unscripted for that matter).
Advance Rule No. 17: A Nightly News package earns a post-event cigar.
Job well done, Nightly News is the place to be for candidates.
King did a great job of exposing the behind-the-scenes activities of campaigns that are facilitated by advance men.
This raises the constant question, does the public want want our candidates to be true-to-life and unscripted? If so, we must lower our standards of the candidates. People running for offices are just simple humans, like us. It is the behind-the-scenes work by advance men that truly help create the candidate.
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