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It was a moment almost too awful to watch, but too compelling to stop watching.
In a debate with political opponents earlier this week, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer launched into her opening statement, stumbled over her words and then fell silent for 10 long seconds.
She laughed uncomfortably, looked down at some notes, took an audible breath and at last found her words.
"We have did what was right for Arizona," she blurted, then added a
Thanks to news websites, bloggers, social media and especially You Tube, the debate clip
How bad was it, really?
"It was a terribly awkward moment in which it would appear that she went blank," said Timothy O'Donnell, an associate professor of communication and director of debate at the University of Mary Washington.
And because Brewer has gained national recognition for her state's controversial attempts to stem illegal immigration, the existence of the viral video clip is especially damaging.
"It may feed the ongoing narrative of her incompetence," O'Donnell said. "She certainly did herself no favors."
But since the debate, O'Donnell noted, Brewer has given interviews with friendly television and radio outlets. "It seems that some of the recuperative post-event strategies seem to be working," he said.
By acknowledging her human frailty, she's striking a sympathetic chord with some potential voters.
After all, communication anxiety--a fear of public speaking--is shared by much of the population, O'Donnell said, mentioning Jerry Seinfeld's joke that at a funeral most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give the eulogy.
Still the video clip won't be easy for a politician to shake. And it could have been avoided, said Linda C. Muller, a vice president of the Rappahannock Regional Toastmasters Club.
"The two things you can nail as a candidate are your opening and closing statements. You control the content," she said.
Such statements can and should be well-practiced beforehand.
"Anybody can blank out at any time," Muller acknowledged. "You fumble and you lose your place. It happens." But, she said, expectations are higher for an experienced candidate for office than they are for casual speakers or even novice politicians.
Muller and O'Donnell both said practice makes it easier for a speaker to recover from a painful pause. One technique, Muller said, is for the speaker to repeat his or her last statement to minimize the pause and jog memory.
At UMW, O'Donnell coaches his students to prepare a solid outline--but not a word-for-
Yesterday, O'Donnell went online to the Arizona public television station where the debate was aired and watched the first 20 or so minutes in an attempt to figure out what happened to Brewer.
The debate featured four candidates, and the other three preceded Brewer in giving their opening statements.
Brewer appeared to be taking notes, O'Donnell said, and she might have been planning to respond to some of her opponents' criticisms.
Taking notes in itself isn't a bad idea. But Brewer fumbled when she glanced at her notes, and O'Donnell speculated that she either lost her place or couldn't read her writing.
O'Donnell plans to use clips of Brewer in some upcoming classes, and not just as a cautionary example. Seeing a governor make a bad gaffe may humanize public speaking for students.
"Speaking is a very risky proposition," O'Donnell said. "We all make mistakes, and that's OK."
Laura Moyer: 540/374-5417
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com
