Berkowitz On NPR’s Talk of The Nation
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz joined the conversation on digging up dirt on politicians with TOTN’s Neal Conan, NPR political analyst Ken Rudin, and New Partners’ Ben Jones.
Listen to the full panel discussion:
Staying On Message in Campaigns
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz assesses for Politico how the media horde can pull campaigns off message if they aren’t careful.
The unofficial chatter means that campaigns are spending a lot less time focusing on policy than on the insult of the day.
“In the silly season, it will take extreme discipline for (Romney’s campaign) to stay focused, because the media reacts to thoughtful substance like a vampire reacts to garlic, mirrors and sunlight,” quipped Jeff Berkowitz, a former RNC research director who worked on Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run. “The campaigns are definitely responsible for what they pick to drive.”
“That doesn’t mean the media won’t try and pull candidates off topic incessantly. And there is always the temptation to take advantage of the latest kerfuffle for the momentary gain of winning the day. You just need to make sure that win helps advance your overall narrative and framework and isn’t distraction.”
Read the full article here.
WSJ’s Daily Wrap Interviews Berkowitz
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz discusses oppo’s golden age on The Wall Street Journal’s “Daily Wrap” radio program.
Listen:
Berkowitz on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co.
This morning, Jeff Berkowitz joined MSNBC’s Chris Jansing for a discussion of opposition research in the 2012 GOP presidential primary. Watch the discussion here:
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Politics with WTSL’s Bobby Chernin
This morning, BPA principal Jeff Berkowitz visited again with Bobby Chernin of WTSL in New Hampshire about the latest news on President Obama, the failure of the Congressional Super-Committee, and the state of the GOP presidential primary.
Listen to Part One:
Listen to Part Two:
Reuters: The Golden Age of Opposition Research?
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz helps Reuters examine how political research has changed over the past decade.
“This is a golden age” of opposition research, said Jeff Berkowitz, who dug dirt on Democratic candidates for the Republican National committee … The sort of search tools that discovered presidential candidate Joe Biden’s plagiarism in 1987 have become more sophisticated and the outlets to shop damaging information are now virtually unlimited.
When these advances are “combined with outside funding,” Berkowitz said, “you will see significantly more opposition research from significantly more sources.” And it will all happen at warp speed …
“Now YouTube is old hat. Now you have Twitter. Twitter is better because it breaks news faster. You can push things around on Twitter. It’s like wildfire. Twitter both provides information and also provides the dissemination mechanism. Campaigns are going to have to adapt to that.”The first step, says Berkowitz, who still advises the RNC and today heads Berkowitz Public Affairs, is to turn the microscope on your own candidate. You should assume that any problems lurking in his or her past will come out – and that trying to bury or deny them will probably backfire.
Read the full story here.
Berkowitz on WTSL’s The Bobby Chernin Show
This morning, Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz spoke with Bobby Chernin of WTSL in New Hampshire about the state of the GOP presidential primary, whether Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, President Obama’s jobs speech to Congress, the economy and the Obama-Solyndra scandal.
Listen to Part One:
Listen to Part Two:
Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz explains Social Security’s predicament to The Daily Caller as the site examines the controversy caused by Gov. Rick Perry’s comments about the entitlement program.
Jeff Berkowitz, a communications consultant and former research director at the Republican National Committee, said statements like Perry’s — accurate though they may be — rub Americans the wrong way because they call that guarantee into question.
“The reason it’s so controversial is because it’s so exactly true,” Berkowitz said. “The more you expose the uncertainty, the more people become concerned about the safety of their investment.” …
“When FDR implemented Social Security, there were 16 workers for every one retiree,” Berkowitz said. “Now there’s less than three for every retiree, and it’s moving downward.” …
Berkowitz said the system needs to be reformed, “otherwise whoever is not at or near retirement isn’t going to get the full benefits they were promised.”
Read the full article here.
Research: From Dark Art to Daily Tool
“It used to be that 90 percent of it was in the dark-arts category, slipping folders to reporters. Now it’s almost the opposite,” BPA principal Jeff Berkowitz tells Politico’s Ben Smith as he investigates the emergence of opposition research as a critical daily tool for public affairs, advocacy and political campaigns.
Berkowitz also noted that opposition research is particularly relevant to the 2012 Republican presidential primaries: “After the debacles they witnessed last cycle in states like Delaware and Colorado and Alaska, where candidates were not sufficiently vetted before they were nominated, I would expect opposition research to play a stronger role in campaign efforts to feed Republican voters’ desire to trust but verify this cycle.”
Read the full article here.
Can Weiner Survive?
Last week, Politico asked that very question, and enlisted Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz to help answer it:
The Queens Congressman did have the good fortune to be busted in an off-year, and in the fast swirl of the contemporary media cycle, some observers thought he might be able to make it up.
“In our day and age, a year and a half isn’t really quick,” said former Republican National Committee research director Jeff Berkowitz. “There’s a lot of time for him to get back to work, focus on his constituents.”
Read the full article here.