Can Noem recover from this self-inflicted wound? Nixon and Clinton offer lessons on how to revive a damaged career – The South Dakota Standard

Kristi Noem wanted to be famous in the worst way possible.

Mission accomplished!

The ambitious governor of South Dakota has been promoting himself for years – and, when appropriate, the state. But as you may have heard, her self-promotion methods backfired in an explosive way.

Noem has never been more famous. But it’s not the kind of fame she was looking for.

Her book ‘No Turning Back: The Truth About What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward’ contained the gruesome story of how Noem, in a bad mood after Cricket, a 14-month-old puppy, ruined a pheasant hunt for some customers of her family business, shot the dog. When she saw a smelly, unpleasant goat her family owned, she sent that away too.

Once the incredible story was shared, the outrage was immediate. Liberals, conservatives, the media – Noem was attacked from all sides. a book tour ended prematurely when she discovered that all the media – including the conservative media that had coddled her for years – wanted answers.

Why did she shoot the animals? And why on earth did she write about it? Noem became silent.

There is speculation that she wanted to impress former President Donald J. Trump, who is known to hate dogs often compares people he fights with fangs. While killing a puppy and bragging about it seems like something an evil cartoon character would do, Trump, as we’ve learned over the past decade, is not a normal, rational man.

Michelle Goudberg wrote a column for The New York Times about the curious pattern of Trump acolytes bragging about doing terrible things. Noem was the central figure in the op-ed, which noted that she has changed her appearance and done everything she can to get Trump’s attention.

Boasting about killing a playful puppy and a goat who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time is apparently something that makes him laugh.

“The inclusion of the story makes more sense when you consider the types of people she is trying to impress,” Goldberg wrote. “The ex-president and those around him often seem drawn to violence and lurid displays of dominance. Trump, of course, makes no secret of his disdain for dogs, nor of his admiration for cruel dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, whom Noem falsely claimed to have met.”

At this point, Noem is both a national joke and a figure of scorn and ridicule. She is seen as a cruel, cold-hearted person who killed animals because she was in a bad mood, and was so tone-deaf that she bragged about it!

One of the most astonishing observations in this whole self-inflicted disaster is the news that Noem tried to tell the puppy and goat story in her first book, “Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland.” But the editors of Twelve, described as the prestige brand of Hachette Book Group, was looking forward to it to remove it.

The new book, published by Centrumstraata right-wing company, was not so carefully edited. Noem’s callous nature and lack of insight into the truly offensive nature of this story was exposed.

As I was told by a South Dakota Republican insider, Noem has been telling this story in Pierre and across the state for years. She was advised to stop because she looked really bad, but she just didn’t get it.

And now she is a figure of ridicule. Just the mention of her name elicits laughter and eye rolls.

Comedians have had a great day with Noem, from HBO’s Bill Maher to the late-night hosts of “Saturday Night Live.” Maher has ridiculed her for three weeks in a row, even though he mentioned Noem as the governor of North Dakota – it’s one of those rectangular states somewhere in the middle of the country, he thinks – in a Kentucky Derby joke on May 3.

“The winning horse will make $3.1 million and the losers will be shot by Kristi Noem,” he said.

Noem was still a target during his May 10 show for noting that her children bought her a pair of shoes for Mother’s Day at “her favorite brand, Hush Puppies.”

This has, without a doubt, been the worst book rollout in history. Noem hoped that Trump would be impressed and that she would be by his side when he ran for president this fall. Instead, she has become a pariah, hiding from the media in South Dakota. Her name is forever linked to the shooting of a puppy.

It’s not exactly the image that someone seeking national office wants.

Her reference to a supposed meeting with North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un The book also raised eyebrows and doubts, as did a story about turning down a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and a story about falling out with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

Noem took aim at dogs, goats and politicians, but she was the one who ended up looking like this Daffy Duck in a Loony Tunes cartoon.

That doesn’t mean she can’t work her way out of this. But it won’t be easy.

Bill Clinton was mocked after his seemingly endless speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Just saying his name made people think of a politician from a small state who didn’t know when to get off stage.

“He just droned on and on,” recalls NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, a South Dakota native. “When he finally said, ‘In conclusion,’ people started cheering.”

In the wake of the public ridicule, Clinton appeared on “The Tonight Show” in an attempt to apologize for his wordiness. TV icon Johnny Carson caused a storm of laughter by placing an hourglass on his desk. But Clinton also laughed and accepted the fact that he messed up. He charmed Carson, who praised his sense of humor, played the saxophone and began climbing out of the hole he had dug for himself.

Clinton focused on his work as governor of Arkansas and continued to work to make himself a viable candidate in the future. Clinton was elected president in 1992.

He still talks too long — I covered a speech in Rapid City in 2008 when he seemed to wrap it up four or five times — but he wasn’t defined by his gaffe. Of course, there were more mistakes in his future, but also many triumphs.

Other national figures have managed to escape a self-inflicted wound. Richard Nixon (seen above in a public domain image posted on wikimedia commons) was mocked for his “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” comment after losing a race for governor of California in 1962.

He said this was his “last press conference,” but he was just angry and bitter.

Nixon continued to workcontinued to make allies in Republican circles across the country, continued to raise money and plan.

Six years later he was elected president.

That doesn’t mean Noem will get out of this easily, or that she will—God forbid—be elected president. Nixon and Clinton were rare figures, very different men, but highly intelligent and respected for their political skills.

That’s not the image that Noem, who is best known for riding horses, touring the country giving speeches and battling her political enemies and the media, has created for herself. This has been an extremely foolish move, and it has cast a lot of doubt on her ability to understand that.

If she wants to reinvent herself and change the narrative, she’ll have to show a sense of humor — which seems highly unlikely — and apologize for her gross lack of judgment. That would be a big turnaround for her, and it wouldn’t fit her Trump-esque style of always attacking and never backing down.

Noem has two and a half years left in her second term as governor. She needs to change the narrative and try to convince people to move beyond this narrative.

Can she do it? Her political future is at stake, so you know Noem will try to do just that. The next time she writes a book, she should listen to an editor warn her about such stories.

Of course, there may not be a next time. Would you buy a book by a puppy killer?

Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Reprint with permission.