Only Talk When It Improves The Silence Analysis

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The game of politics is no simplistic board game; it is strenuous, complicated, and almost impossible to predict. The reason that american politics is unpredictable can be contributed to the fact that it is run by people. Likewise, as a presidential candidate, one is running against people while trying to gain the most votes possible from people; therefore they have to acquire impeccable people skills. Chris Matthews gives tips on how to play the game of politics, and how to play correctly with others in his novel Hardball. As a presidential campaign advisor for Hillary Clinton, the maxims in Hardball that I would repeat to her every morning during the campaign are Leave No Shot Unanswered and Hang a Lantern on Your Problem. At the same time, I would tell her to ignore Only Talk When It Improves the Silence. Clinton faces an opponent in the presidential race who is not afraid to bring down his foes with harsh words and slander, consequently she needs to be …show more content…

I would suggest that she ignore the maxim to Only Talk When It Improves the Silence due to this. Listening is important to gather information, but Clinton must persuade people to listen to her first before she has the ability to listen to others. For example, in a class discussion there is a distinct difference between the quiet kids who listen to the conversation and the kids that contribute to the discussion. When the quiet kids do not contribute to the conversation their voices are sometimes forgotten or seem less important. On the contrary, the kids who do speak up and voice their ideas are praised by the teacher. Clinton must also be careful to exert the right amount of confidence when speaking since people often respect and look up to people who are confident in their words, but the truth to this maxim is that speaking too often with too much confidence is not a healthy quality for a