Bobby "The Bedwetter" Jindal told the Associated Press he ain't gonna hire no speaking coach, ain't gonna hire no speechwriter.

"Look, I get that people thought I
could have spoken better. I get that. That's fine … What's important
to me is the content. I'm a policy guy. You guys know that. I've always
been a policy guy, always will be a policy guy. The ideas are
important. The substance is important."

How many of us have felt this contempt for communication technique as somehow being anathema to intellect. Usually we get this from engineers, IT goons and finance types, and usually in the corporate sphere.

But to hear the substance vs. communication style bit from a politician—and in the age of Obama, mind you—this proves this is one stubborn prejudice.

Has anyone out there managed to convince a "policy guy"—or a science guy or a strategy guy or a numbers guy—that it's okay and even advisable to be a communication guy at the same time?

This is the lead of a newsletter put out by a communication consultant:

"My second future-facing experience defies simple description; I don't have words big enough, with enough energy, openness and genuine graciousness to describe it. Or words to convey what it's like to stand face-to-face with massive, mind-bendingly complex issues and begin to imagine the scope of actions needed to impact outcomes …."

What's she trying and failing to describe? An HR conference.

Incidentally, she does not bother to reference her first "future-facing experience," so I assume it was her first day of kindergarten.

A communicorrespondent wrote me Friday that she was earning her dough:
“We have an announcement I’m getting out today … no more 401(k) match … no more floating holidays, no more incidental spending … all with the directive to write it in a way that ‘doesn’t communicate that things are falling apart.'”
I just finished earning my own dough and zipped over for a look at the Dow, which closed down 299.64 points. And I actually said, “Well thank God it didn’t drop 300.”
As my dad used to say on the way to bed after a rough day: “We’ll try ‘er again tomorrow.”
Or as Charlie Rich would say—Shewchuk, this one’s for you ….