Doyle's PR nightmare

The latest edition of The Mendota Beacon hit the newsstands this week and a highlight is Jenny Pryor's column on Governor Doyle's public relations catastrophe better known as the month of January. She notes:

Doyle is facing significant unfavorability ratings. In the latest poll, 46% of Wisconsin residents disapprove of his efforts as Governor, while only 44% approve. One of his opponents, Mark Green, is polling one point behind Doyle, well within the margin of error. Scott Walker, the other gubernatorial hopeful, is not far behind.

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Keep in mind that all this is happening less than two weeks after Doyle’s State of the State speech, a time when he should be riding high on good press and new proposals. He was also given the chance to visit troops in Iraq, which should have been a great opportunity for positive media coverage. Instead, he had even Democratic politicos commenting that he’d probably rather stay in Iraq than head back to Wisconsin.

This sort of unmitigated PR nightmare is wholly reminiscent of the summer of 2004. John Kerry went into the Democratic National Convention in Boston – his home town – rightfully expecting a healthy bounce in the polls following a week of Democratic television domination and a primetime acceptance speech. But thanks to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and various Kerry campaign gaffes, the man never saw a spike in the polls that couldn't be explained away by the margin of error. His finest PR chance came and went, and just a few months later it would seem that those few points he couldn't muster in June may well have cost him the presidency.

For Mr. Doyle, things seem to be going even worse. Just as the swift boat campaign would long haunt the long-faced man from Massachusetts, allegations of administrative payola look to haunt the incumbent governor through Election Day. At the very least, the recent indictment will keep him from being able to ever play the Jack Abramoff card against Mr. Green (something that would be a dirty trick in the first place) and, at the very most, he will actually stroll into Election Day looking more damning than any Wisconsin politician since a senator who foolheartedly proclaimed to have “a list” in the 1950s.

Still, I admire Mr. Doyle's campaign workers. I mean, at this point, trying to spin for the governor is roughly tantamount to slapping on a blindfold and trying to complete a Rubik's Cube.