John: “It wasn’t me.”
Paul: “It’s not that big a problem. You can recover. You’ll need to kiss ass like a one legged man at an ass-kissing contest, but you can recover.”
John: “It wasn’t me.”
George: “Damage control.”
Paul: “Damage control. You need to get in front of this thing and control the damage.”
George: “You need to, exactly.. You need be the one talking about this. Don’t get attacked with it. If you’re the one talking about it then noone’s going to imagine it was you that fucked up.”
Paul: “Exact.. No, wait..”
George: “I’m saying he shouldn’t even concede the point it was him that..”
John: “It wasn’t..”
George: “I’m saying; be the one talking about it. Be all “What the fuck happened there? That was a fuckup”.”
Paul: “No..”
George: “No it’s like.. two lines of defense, right? First: make a lot of noise about it. That’ll throw people off. Everyone’s expecting you to hide in a hole and wait to get fired. If you’re the one hunting round for a head to cut off it makes it look like it wasn’t even you.”
John: “This is the problem. People don’t listen.”
Paul: “Nope. I disagree. I’m thinking more like cop to it but act like it’s nothing. Smooth it over with management but for fuck sake don’t walk around hunched over in front of the plebs because your going to look weak.”
George: “This is what I’m saying. Lines of defense. First act like it wasn’t you, to the users and management, right? If that doesn’t work then fall back, cop to it to management and smooth it over.. But, like, the boss isn’t going to send a newsletter out to the plebeians saying “John fucked up.”
Paul: “Ask him how.”
George: Laughs “Right? Take your whipping from the boss and walk out like nothing happened. Plebs don’t have to know you borked it. Plebs don’t have to know who borked it. Plebs don’t have to know shit.”
Paul: “Actually that’s not bad. Go with that.”
John: “It wasn’t me.”
He walked to his car and a little piece of me went with him. Specifically, the Daily Show episodes I copied to his flash drive. That night I lay awake in bed thinking about him, and me, and wether having a confirmed Republican nominee while the two Democrat candidates were still fighting it out going in to the convention would draw media focus away from McCain when he needs it most, or wether it would make the Democrats seem disorganized and weak.
