Off Script

From a former White House presidential events production director comes an illuminating journey through the most catastrophic scenes of political stagecraft since the “Age of Optics” in 1988. The responsibility of being a public figure is no walk in the park—the world highlights politicians’ every mistake. “Image collapse” can befall anyone whose carefully cultivated persona is analyzed by, and filtered through, intermediaries in the broadcast booths of cable news networks or behind the photo desks of newspapers, magazines, and today’s host of digital platforms. As someone who orchestrates television- and photo-ready moments involving important political figures, Josh King has unique experience working with the reputations of public figures. In Off Script, King leads listeners through an entertaining behind-the-scenes journey through the most catastrophic scenes of political stagecraft since the dawn of the “Age of Optics” in 1988. Listeners might recall these moments as simple cases of bad luck, but King argues that they were actually symptomatic of something deeper in how we view our leaders. We tour nearly thirty years of history to set the stage for the Age of Optics and then turn to the Obama administration and what King calls the “Vanilla Presidency.” King shows how Barack Obama began his term in office as more guarded and more protective of the presidential persona than anyone in history, and as we arrive at the election of 2016 and beyond, we have to wonder: Will our future president follow Obama’s example? If so, how will that influence the relationship between our nation’s citizens and their leader?