It’s All Roger Stone’s Fault

Crédit photo : Jenna Schoenefeld / New York Times 

Frederic Perreault, Bloomfield Kooper

Stone: The Definition of an Influencer

All political opinion aside – I repeat – all political opinion aside, Roger Stone, the man who’s the talk of the town for a few weeks with a documentary carrying his own name, is a very fine strategist. A boundless visionary. A manipulation master. An arriviste. A success-story maker. In one word, the nec-plus-ultra of what an influencer should be. Such an influencer that he directly impacted – for better or worse - history with a capital “H”.

Let’s take a step back… Why should we, in this exercise, put political opinions aside? Stone’s method, way to work, can be used not only for political advancement of one’s party regardless of it’s side, but could also be used by any religious group, marketed product, journalism, education, conversation between friends, etc. And that very method works!

Roger Stone in a quick glance

Already at the center of a controversy at the age of 19, Roger Stone is one of the accused directly related to the Watergate Scandal. His task was to discredit Nixon’s rivals while getting financial contributions by the administration.

After staying low-key for a few years, he’s back in the political ring as Ronald Reagan’s political advisers, successfully making the former actor USA’s 40^th President. Stone repeats the feat in 1989 with George Bush. Meanwhile, through his lobbying firm, he gains influence among the country’s decision makers as well as towards some foreign dictatorial regimes.

As the Reform Party had gained a lot of attention and voting intensions, Stone successfully managed to obliterate the party by sabotaging and cannibalizing its leadership race, all to the profit of the Republican Party, winning back its former supporters. During 2000’s infamous Florida recount, he disrupted the whole process by carefully organizing demonstrations leading to G.W. Bush’s presidential victory.

For 40 years and always standing in the shadow, Stone has been pulling strings for America’s top political players and some of the world’s largest corporations.

A business must

It’s been already a few years that we, at Bloomfield Kooper, have been following, studying and analyzing Stone’s moves. Hence, being honest, we have been applying his “rules” in our business model with great success. As we all know, there are no friends in business and the strongest, regardless his methods, will always gain contracts, money, notoriety, power. This is what our clients pay us for. Bottom line.

Stone’s methods can be perceived as negative, serving only the “dark side”, in fact it is quite the opposite as they dictate how to successfully reach a given goal either you are a political party or a charity organization and anything in between.

Do not be fooled though as Stone is not the author of these rules. Through his professional career, he rather collected, analyzed and synthesized a series of concepts he then applied to his work. These are called “Stone’s Rules”.

If it works for the President of the USA, it will work for you!

Having detected the political potential in Donald Trump as soon as the mid 1980s, Stone has been closely following the real estate tycoon for years. He is now reaping the fruits of his efforts.

One should know that at first, trump had no interest in being part of the political landscape until he finally fell for Stone’s persuasion techniques. As a matter of fact, if his method worked on the businessman, should they also work towards the “silent majority”. The rest is history.

Thanks. But no thanks!

In conclusion, if Donald Trump won the presidency, we can only put the blame on one person: Roger Stone. Now that you know how effective the man’s rules are, should you use them wisely.

The Rules

"Unless you can fake sincerity, you'll get nowhere in this business”
"Politics isn't theater. It's performance art. Sometimes, for its own sake."
"Don't order fish at a steakhouse,"
"White shirt + tan face = confidence,"
"Undertakers and chauffeurs are the only people who should be allowed by law to wear black suits."
"Hit it from every angle. Open multiple fronts on your enemy. He must be confused, and feel besieged on every side."
"Always praise 'em before you hit 'em."
"Be bold. The more you tell, the more you sell." (attributed to advertising guru David Ogilvy)
"Losers don't legislate." (from Richard Nixon)
"Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack."
"Nobody ever built a statue to a committee."
"Avoid obviousness."
"Get your carbs from booze, not sweets"
"Never do anything till you're ready to do it."
"Look good = feel good."
"Always keep the advantage.”
“He who speaks first, looses.”
“Attack, attack, attack, never defend.”
“When i hear the word culture, I reach for my gun.”
“Democrats are the party of slavery, Republicans are the party of freedom.”
“Folks want government out of the bedroom and the boardroom.”
“Roy Cohn wasn't gay. He was a man who liked having sex with men.”
“Lay low, play dumb, keep moving.”
“Never turn down the opportunity to have sex or be on TV.” (attributed to Gore Vidal)
“Nothing is on the level.”