It’s almost cliche as a public relations professional for me to say that the devil is in the cover-up, but in the sexual harassment saga of republican presidential nominee hopeful Herman Cain it’s simply true.

Did he harass or assault those women? We don’t know. But Cain’s mishandling of the crisis is going to doom his candidacy, regardless of his guilt or innocence.

Sure, some people are doubling down and money is flowing into his campaign coffers, but his sound-bites and clips in the last two weeks could be used to virtually hand Obama a second term if Cain gets the GOP nomination.

What Cain keeps getting wrong are the fundamentals of effective media relations.

First, you do not fully control the situation as you might control a company as a CEO. This is often a bitter pill my powerful business clients have to swallow when they are facing a media crisis. Cain tried to control the media by declaring he was not going to  talk about the allegations, only to have to hold a full press conference the very next day.

Second, stay calm and focused or you make stupid mistakes. I spend half my time getting my otherwise rational clients to think rationally during a media crisis when they want to be angry and waste time railing against the media. Not only did Cain get angry in front of the media, his Chief of Staff confirmed incorrect information about the source of one of the accusations and they have reversed themselves so often it’s bordering on the ridiculous.

Which leads me to my last point - take responsibility for what you have done, explain your side, take the wind out of the sails of the media by telling them what they are going to find out anyway, so that you truly can get back on message.

Until Cain does this, his message will never get the airtime he needs to become president. And given how badly he has handled his first crisis that’s probably a good thing.

It’s rare to see people react with such sadness to an event that was as predicted as Jack Layton’s tragic passing. We all heard his voice and saw the cake makeup on his face in his last press conference and yet his optimistic attitude that so captured our national attention in the recent federal election made us all believe that if ANYONE could beat cancer again it would be Jack.

You may not agree with his politics or even his approach but there was something about his attitude that was truly contagious. It woke us up in the final stages of another  dull conservative VS liberal election and made us think that this guy could be Prime Minister. 

Why? The NDP platform hadn’t changed. Their tactics hadn’t evolved. His party wasn’t much more electable. It was Jack – his sheer will to lead, his optimism for unprecedented results for his party, and his hope for a better Canada that inspired a cynical country.

And that is why his optimism matters – he translated his personal optimism into hope for a nation.

His final missive sums it up best:

“My friends, love is better than anger. Let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.  And we’ll change the world” – Jack Layton, August 20, 2011.

 Words for us all to embrace and live by.

A fascinating result of the recent federal election is the role that young people - Generation Y in particular - will play in Canada’s political future.

We have all heard about Canada’s youngest ever MP - the new 19 year-old NDP and his caucus colleague the young mom who spent part of the campaign vacationing in Vegas.  

Most comments and editorial cartoons mock their inexperience, revel in the challenge Jack Layton will have controlling them, and some even fear it is the end of parliamentary decorum.

In conversations I have had over the last week with people from all over Ontario, I think there is a cynicism under all of this…a jealousy that they will get the big paycheck so easily and a fear that change is actually afoot… that the power is indeed slipping from the old guard.

You can look at the Arab Spring in Africa and the Middle East and see evidence of the impact of politically active people under 30.

But there is evidence of the youth political phenomenon closer to home and it is not just the chance election of those NDP MPs in Quebec.

While participating on the inaugural podcast for Pundit Central last week I was struck by the fact that at my youngish age of 38, I was probably the oldest pundit on the show (a first!).

And in listening to intelligent, passionate pundits from all three national parties defend their positions it occurred to me that they were convinced that the political landscape was changing and their generation was leading the change.

Leading it. Not sitting at the feet of the elder party statesmen. Not waiting in a queue to get the authority when someone tells them they have earned it. In fact as one responded to a challenge I made about the sad state of the Liberal party - watch the young Liberal groups. That is where the real action is.

So look past the fear-mongering around young MPs and rid yourself of the notion the old guard still has all the control.

Today’s under 30s aren’t going to wait a few decades to run things. 

They are starting to change our politics right now and that may be a very good thing.

For anyone who observes politics, you can likely predict what messages Harper and Ignatieff will use during this election based on the history of how each party approaches issues and voters.

Conservatives will emphasize importance of economic stability and position their issues in the context of a world in conflict (when isn’t the world in conflict?). They use fear of change and the unknown to prevent us from being seduced by uncertain and supposedly expensive progressive ideals.

Liberals on the other hand try to appeal to our aspirations for a better society and the ideals of equality, education for all etc while maintaining they can be fiscally responsible (not tax and spend liberals as the charge goes). They are counting on our desire to move past stable and great, to be even better to each other and the world.

Sure there are nuances to these ‘cynical fear’ vs ‘naïve hope’ narratives each election cycle, but we have seen them played out by the left and right on both sides of the borders so often as to predict them with some accuracy.

So given we know what the messages will be, the key advantage is message control. Controlling the news cycle. Shaping the conversation at the water cooler. Making the opponent’s negatives stick and your best talking point become public truth.

Message control is tricky stuff. Listening to Harper’s kick-off speech after meeting the Governor General and Ignatieff’s response gave a clear signal as to who has the advantage so far.

Harper dismissed the whole contempt of parliament historic charge against his government by whipping up fear about that old ‘liberal coalition with the seperatists’. The media fell right into the trap. He even used the ‘secret agenda’ nonsense the liberals tried to use against him in past elections against the liberals. Messaging genius.

And Ignatieff took the bait hook, line and sinker. He was so far on the defensive about coalitions he barely squeaked out his hope and joy agenda.

The battle for message control quickly took over Twitter with conservatives masterfully tweeting about ‘Count Iggy and his coalition’ while Ignatieff kept wasting his 140 characters defending his position. (You can see my comments to each leader on Twitter @LauraBChattin)

So two days in, Harper is winning the message control game and if this keeps up, the election too.

And if Ignatieff stays this clueless on how he is being out-messaged he will have no one to blame but himself.

You only had to watch the jubilant tweets coming out of Egypt on Valentines day (Mubarek is stepping down!) or the chilling tweets from terrified protesters trying to organize in Libya and the dire warnings from Ghadafi supporters to know that Twitter has liberated speech.

Have a mobile phone? You can contribute to a global conversation in real time. Text messaging is now most popular form of communication on earth. It is a true phenomenon.

I only joined Twitter because of the Jasmine revolution. As a public affairs pundit I could no longer justify waiting for traditional media to summarize what I could learn in real time about unprecedented global events.

Twitter is no longer just the self-obsessed micro-blogging the minutia of their day.  It is now (depending on who you follow) an instant news source and global pulse.

So as we debated free speech issues on the show and attempts by different groups to censor information, I made the point that the proverbial horse had left the barn.

It’s too late. Governments can’t limit free speech. Wikileaks keeps leaking. Twitter keeps Tweeting. Let’s keep talking. 

Join the conversation!