After months of ridicule spawning from leaked photos of Anthony Weiner exposing himself to multiple women via Twitter, he’s recently made the decision to continue his New York City mayoral campaign. The man’s got more balls than I do, but I can’t say mine have been on Twitter. His choice to stay in the race is unwise on many fronts. He has no business running for mayor with all of this negative publicity affecting his public image and personal life.
His situation is dire. At this point he should be more concerned about repairing his damaged reputation. That can’t be achieved when he’s also trying to win a mayoral race that has no business being in. His dilemma can be compared to a PR firm working with a client in a time of crisis. The client may think they know what’s best as far as goals, strategies and tactics to implement, but a forward-thinking client will take a PR consultant’s advice to eventually agree on a plan that is best for everyone involved.
In that plan, sometimes you need to accept responsibility and do things that aren’t always easy. His problems were happening well before his mayoral campaign even started. He was sexting women of all ages while in Congress, and these actions came back to haunt him when he decided to run for NYC mayor in 2013. He never stopped but still tried to salvage his political career.
Weiner acted like a client who is disillusioned, stubborn and petty. Dropping out of this race would be a blow to his pride and ego. He just couldn’t let it go and acted selfishly and embarrassed himself, his wife and family. He didn’t listen to his counsel and became blinded by his own arrogance.
If I worked on his PR team, I would strongly urge him to put the mayoral campaign on hold and focus on stabilizing areas of his life outside of politics. The countless hours he’s spent on the campaign trail could be better spent improving relations with his wife Huma or attending sessions with a therapist to address issues that really matter.
By staying in this race, he’s digging himself into a deeper hole by choosing short-term goals over long-term happiness. Weiner must take care of personal matters to show his family, friends, supporters and the voting public that he’s ready to be a faithful public servant again.
Brad Walker 