Rauschenberger's Jedi Mind Trick

Even if you were only half-listening to Sam Madonia’s interview with Steve Rauschenberger this morning, you would have come away with a strong perception that the leaders of the state are selling out the downstate listeners of AM Springfield. He achieved this Jedi mind trick by peppering his responses with a single word, “Chicago.” He must of said it a dozen times during the ten-minute segment I listened to and his intent wasn’t to promote summer tourism in the Windy City. Just as politicians, when speaking to their base, will slander their opponents by calling them a liberal or conservative, Rauschenberger painted the governor, the speaker, and the Senate president as belonging to an opposition party made up of not only democrats, but of big city bureaucrats interested only in the well-being of their corner of the state. Pitting Chicago vs. downstate isn’t a new strategy by any means. Both sides have played it. But it does seem that Rauschenberger is going pretty hard after the downstate democrats who supported Blagojevich the last election by convincing them that the republicans have their best interests at heart.

From a communications standpoint, it's interesting how he used an almost subliminal approach to deliver his message. Whereas some politicians do all sorts of verbal gymnastics to stay “on message” and avoid responding to questions that don’t fit with that message, Rauschenberger, in the number of interviews I’ve heard him give, has shown himself to forthright and frank in his responses. Several months ago Jim Leach posed a question to him on alternatives to the budget situation that seemed ripe for ducking. He surprised Leach with a lengthy and candid reply. It's interesting then, to me anyway, how he was able to hit his message hard with the repeated references to the democratic leaders' Chicago connection, while still providing substantive answers to Madonia's questions.