Shut up and listen: The election 'fixer' has some advice for Biden, Macron and Sunak
Power Play
POLITICO
4.2 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Election fever is gripping both sides of the North Atlantic. As Britain heads into the final weeks of a long election campaign, French voters face a snap parliamentary election. The Biden-Trump race for the White House draws ever closer. One man who knows about how to run a campaign is Jim Messina — known in Washington as "the fixer."
Messina is the mastermind behind President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 and David Cameron's surprise victory for Britain's Conservatives in 2015. In this week's edition, host Anne McElvoy asks him what advice he would give to President Biden as he prepares for the first televised debate with Donald Trump next week — and to Rishi Sunak, who's leading the Conservatives to what may be an historic defeat in the U.K.
Messina says parties on both sides of the pond need to "shut up and listen to voters" about their concerns on immigration and the economy. "Voters are so much smarter than anyone gives them credit for," he tells McElvoy. "If you have bad ingredients, you're not gonna make a perfect cake," he adds — saying that a disciplined campaign can only achieve so much.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | London buses come in bunches so this saying goes. When one election comes along |
| 0:09.8 | so did two or three more so Britain's voters have entered the final weeks of their election campaign. |
| 0:16.0 | The French have also embarked on their own, |
| 0:19.0 | abruptly calling a national vote, |
| 0:21.0 | and the Biden-Trump race for the White House, a marathon. a Welcome to Power Play, Politico's Weekly Podcast, where I talk to some of the most influential people |
| 0:39.2 | on either side of the Atlantic. |
| 0:41.3 | I'm Anne McElvoy, and if you haven't already please do take a moment to follow this |
| 0:45.8 | podcast wherever you're listening so you don't miss an episode with a guest you might really |
| 0:50.8 | like to hear from. Joining me this week is Jim Messina, the political strategist who was President Obama's deputy chief of staff in the White House. |
| 1:01.0 | He ran Obama's successful re-election campaign in 2012 before crossing |
| 1:06.6 | the pond to advise Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron who pulled off a |
| 1:11.3 | surprise victory with Messina's help in 2015. |
| 1:16.0 | These days he's CEO of the Messina Group in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:20.0 | where he advises a range of politicians and a host of corporate clients from Google to |
| 1:25.4 | Airby and B. So what does he make of the electoral races being fought out on either |
| 1:30.9 | side of the Atlantic? Jim Messina, welcome to Power Play. Thanks for having me. Now, |
| 1:36.4 | there's a colleague hearing I was interviewing you, said, hey, Jim Messina, he's worked with the most talented politician of a generation in Barack Obama, |
| 1:46.9 | a huge social sea change in US politics when he came to power with your help. |
| 1:51.6 | Everything else she said must feel like a bit of a let down, does it? |
| 1:55.0 | No, not a let down because, you know, when I was 10 years old, I wrote a paper, what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said the president's campaign |
| 2:03.2 | manager I was 10 so my entire life has been about you know getting to this moment |
| 2:09.1 | and then getting to work for political leaders around the world, in some ways is more interesting than American politics. |
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