As soon as Thursday night's debate between President Bush and Mass. Sen. John Kerry concluded, Matt McDonald '00 sprang into action.
Wanting to make sure the Bush-Cheney campaign's account of events was included in the press coverage of the debate, McDonald and his team of colleagues spent the debate and the moments following it identifying what they perceived as Kerry's most serious missteps, and then figuring out how to relay them to the press.
As director of the campaign's Rapid Response team, McDonald manages press coverage of the Bush-Cheney campaign on an hour-to-hour basis, responding to attacks and publicizing inconsistencies made throughout the day.
Among the most damaging of Kerry's mistakes, McDonald said in an interview with The Dartmouth, were the senator's contradictory remarks regarding the Iraq war.
"He said in one breath that the war was a 'mistake,' but asserted in the next that our troops are not dying for a mistake," McDonald said, adding, "Kerry added insult to injury by calling our allies a coalition that wasn't 'genuine.'"
McDonald then spent much of the rest of the night publicizing such talking points throughout all available media outlets.
"In the context of these debate statements, we called attention to them in the press, made sure that people were talking about it on television and launched an ad on his 'global test' doctrine." McDonald said.
McDonald's team places a premium on speed -- and with good reason.
Before the early 1990s, campaigns had as much as a full day to respond to attacks and publicize their viewpoint before a newspaper was printed or a nightly newscast aired.
However, with the advent of the 24-hour news channels in the last decade, the concept of rapid response has become important.
"The news cycle today is in constant motion ... there are cable news channels which cover events all day," McDonald said.
McDonald's knowledge of the media comes from experience, although his road to the Bush campaign was an atypical one. He arrived at Dartmouth in 1996 but declined to become involved in campus politics. He instead presided over a passionate editorial page as The Dartmouth's op-ed editor during the announcement of the Student Life Initiative in 1999.
His career in politics began with a summer internship his junior year with then-Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci. He continued his work with the governor after his graduation from Dartmouth as a speechwriter.
When Cellucci accepted the position of Canadian ambassador in 2001, McDonald began working for the National Republican Congressional Committee, helping congressman from competitive districts win their elections. He left the committee in December 2003 to join the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Currently, McDonald is focusing his energies on Nov. 2 but is confident that there will be "plenty of employment opportunities for people who worked on both campaigns no matter who wins," he said.
To those interested in a career in politics, McDonald encouraged students to get involved at any level to establish themselves.
"State politics are a good way to do something. You can have a lot of influence on politics at a young age," McDonald said.
