Imagine working for someone who you thought had the potential to become the next president of the United States and who you believed would be the one to make the nation a better place. They had the same ideas about the world as you and were a role model in how they led their public and personal lives. Now imagine they did something that went against everything you believed they’d stood for. Would it change your opinion of them? Would you continue to support them? Would you use this newfound knowledge as leverage for something you wanted?
Over the weekend I saw “The Ides of March” a film starring an extremely talented cast, including: George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marissa Tomei and many more. In short, it is the story of Stephen Meyers (Gosling), an up-and-coming campaign press secretary for presidential hopeful Governor Mike Morris (Clooney). During the frantic last days before the highly contested Democratic Ohio presidential primary, Meyers finds himself in the midst of a political scandal that has the potential to ruin Morris’ shot at the presidency. 
I wanted to take a look at, as a PR professional, how I would’ve handled the potential fallout from this career threatening incident. While the film did not show what happened after “shit hit the fan” it is hard not to wonder about what would have happened had people found out about the Governor’s affair with a young intern working on his campaign. Here was a family man so put together and well-respected by people all across the country that Republicans were trying to vote for his competitor in the open Ohio state primary because they were afraid he was un-beatable. And yet he was also the same man who took advantage of a 20 year-old girl and got her pregnant… This would not be an easy one to explain to the press.
Looking back on our history as a country, there have been many political scandals in with elected officials have broken the rules and gotten involved with people they shouldn’t. The most infamous of all would have to be the case of President Bill Clinton and, at the time, 22 year-old white house intern Monica Lewinsky. The thing I would like to take away from this to apply to my future career in Public Relations as well as my hypothetical conundrum with The Ides of March, is how important it is to tell the truth. Clinton told the truth the second time around, after lying about it in the beginning. While people disapproved of his actions, telling the truth in the beginning would have saved him a lot of trouble and grief.
If Governor Morris had been questioned about his affair with a young staffer, my advice for him would be to tell the truth because in the world of politics your word is your greatest asset and if it’s found to be faulty I would imagine it’s very difficult to gain it back.
Posted on October 23, 2011
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