In the summer of 1994, while I was working as a writer and editor in the Clinton White House, Frank Luntz was planning with House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich for a historic Republican takeover of Congress in the mid-term elections. Frank was the pollster and one of the main architects of the “Contract with America,” a plain-English document outlining a 10-point plan that helped the Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1950s.
We were working on opposite sides of the aisle, but apparently we agreed about President Clinton’s skills as a communicator. When describing him in a 2003 interview, Frank said President Clinton was “the best communicator of the last 50 years. He felt your pain. Now, I d argue that he caused your pain, but at least he felt it while he was causing it.”