Glen Owen and William Lowther
Daily Mail [UK]
11 April 2010
She is the Chairman Mao fan whose ‘body language’ coaching sessions helped Barack Obama to enter the White House – and now David Cameron is hoping her skills will steer him into Downing Street.
Anita Dunn has been hired by the Tory leader to give him the edge in the vital head-to-head TV debates, the first of which will be held on ITV1 at 8.30pm on Thursday.
Ms Dunn, from the Washington-based political consultancy Squier Knapp Dunn, was given the task of ‘de-poshing’ Harvard-educated Obama to enhance his appeal to middle and working-class women voters. Cameron’s team hope that she will be able to pull off a similar trick for the Eton-educated leader.
With more than half of voters in the key marginal seats saying that the three debates will influence their decision, party advisers are placing huge importance on their preparation for the events.
‘She showed Obama how to look smart without looking smug, how to look compassionate without being condescending, how to shed the appearance of being self-involved and arrogant,’ says Brenda Moore, an electoral expert for the Republican Party.
The article continues at the Daily Mail.
