Roger L. Simon has criticized Bush's pitiful PR operation, saying the best defenses of American foreign policy come from bloggers, not the administration.
He's right, but that might be because Bush administration insiders realize things may be worse than they seem.
Plus, there may be so much money flowing to good ol' boys that there is no incentive to hire any first-rate people who might make the insiders look bad by comparison. One example, the Pentagon's brilliant PR specialist, Tori Clarke (who I once saw speak persuasively at a Washington conference, when she was head of the National Television Cable Association), was replaced by Larry Di Rita, a chief of staff without any media experience. I had a nodding acquaintance with Di Rita when he was at the Heritage Foundation as a budget expert (he once gave me some numbers on public broadcasting). He may be intelligent, but he is not a media guru. Yet, as Rumsfeld's chief of staff, Di Rita has been handling Pentagon PR for years, since Tori Clarke left, seemingly impervious to the dropping ratings for the American war in Iraq.
Good PR people influence policy decisions, because actions speak louder than words. Tori Clarke, for instance, pushed through the project to embed reporters with US troops against the objections of Pentagon brass. However, if the minds at the top are made up, locked tight, and don't want to listen to the public, good public relations become impossible, and good PR people become unavailable...
Maybe Jack Abramoff's indictment will lead to some changes in policies and personnel-- but I wouldn't count on it.
