KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

I wonder if she was listening to us?

There's a great piece on Bush's uber PR person, Karen Hughes over on the Huffington Post. Awhile back we wondered how she was going to measure her success in her new job and argued that the reason for the lack of progress was due to the lack of accountability. Sounds like she was listening. She now cites these statistics as proof that the US PR plan is working.

"87% of participants in our programs have a better understanding of the United States and 73% have more favorable attitudes toward our country as a result of their participation. ... So we've really expanded our exchange programs. When I came, the year before I arrived, we had 27,000 people participate. This year we'll have almost 40,000."

I have no way of checking those statistics and for all we know the methodology could well be suspect, but at least she's showing a lot more accountability that her predecessors. I'm not quite ready to call her a Measurement Maven, but  at least she's out of the  "Menace" category -- as least as far as measurement goes. 

Hope, humor and inspiration from Obama

 

The best line of yesterday's meet and greet with Barack was Gary Hirshberg's who urged a large group of friends and politicos gathered at his Concord home to turn the country from an abomination to an Obama-Nation. I was leaning towards Obama, but like most Granite Staters, I had to shake his hand and look him in they eye before I made up my mind. I did just that yesterday and he was every bit as impressive as expected and more so. He gave the usual stump speech, but then answered questions from the crowd including one from Durham's Peter Smith about the Supreme Court. The question was, what would he look for in a Supreme Court nominee and his answer was "heart" -- saying that intellect was easy to come by, it was heart that was needed and that he saw the court as looking out for the little guy. He added that in cabinet appointees his priorities would be heart, integrity, competence and independence. His response to a question from Gary's wonderful mom, Louise, went to the heart of the matter when he addressed what his response would be to another terrorist attack. His approach was collaborative and reasoned and well thought out, avoiding the usual fear mongering you hear on the campaign trail.
His approach to international diplomacy, his understanding of the issues and his general credibility were everything it was cracked up to be and he clearly is getting advice on global warming and energy from Gary.  So he's got my vote. Look for an Obama event in Durham soon.