After a week of memorable interviews on my radio show, including Jeb Bush (audio and transcript here), Donald Trump (audio and transcript here) Rick Perry (audio and transcript here), Reince Priebus (audio and transcript here), Donald Rumsfeld (audio and transcript here) Bill O'Reilly (audio and transcript here), David Corn (audio and transcript here), Chuck Todd (audio and transcript here) Jon Allen (audio and transcript here), and of course Mark Steyn (audio and transcript here,) I have come to three conclusions of possible use to people invited to be interviewed. These rules about being interviewed apply whether one is a candidate, an official or former official, or a journalist.

Rule One: If you want to sell anything --a candidacy, a message, a byline (and especially books)-- accept as many interviews as possible, giving priority to those settings with the largest audience, but understanding that ultimate audience often depends upon amplification of the first interview by social media. Thus do Mediaite, IJ Review, and The Federalist plus the more traditional media/political reporters at a host of key outlets such as Bloomberg Politics, The Daily Caller, The Hill, National Journal, National Review Online, Politico, Roll Call, Time, The Washington Free Beacon, The Washington Post, The Washington Examiner and of course our own Townhall.com using Twitter serve as amplifiers of message. (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are slower to use secondary material, even in the Twitter feeds of their reporters, but are changing to keep up with the times.)

Rule Two: If asked a question, answer that question in a straightforward, responsive way. Brief answers are fine, slightly longer ones better to allow the host some time to hear and prepare a follow-up if necessary or to figure out where to go next, and full answers are best provided they don't go past the magic one-minute mark, but contentious, rambling off-topic discourses hurt the person giving the answer and does not help in the delivery of the message. Contrast O'Reilly's answers to me with those given by David Corn. Both were regarded as tough interviews, but Corn fared terribly in most eyes --O'Reilly helped himself with my conversation-- because Corn was defensive and whiney, threatened repeatedly to hang up and quarreled with nearly every question. Of course when you agree to an interview, you aren't accepting an invitation to a debate, but to answer questions.

Which brings me to a corollary of Rule Two: There are no "gotcha questions" even if there are "gotcha answers." The National Journal's Ron Fornier wrote an excellent column on this subject yesterday. Everyone entering into the interview has to be prepared to answer --or decline to answer-- every question, and to do so with grace and humor. Read Fornier on Clinton's answer to the baseball question. Yes, there are difficult questions and lines of inquiry, but that's what thinking and rehearsing are for, and that's why Rule Three below is so key. But there aren't any questions that are off-limits, and if a question is inappropriate, the interviewee just ought to declare "That's an inappropriate question designed to injure me and I respectfully decline to answer it." You may get a follow-up or two or three, but if indeed the question is inappropriate and thus off-limits for some reason, the audience won't fault you for declining to answer it even repeatedly.

Corollary two of Rule Two: When possible, go longer, not shorter. Rushing an interviewer makes him or her try to accomplish too much in too little time. We who conduct interviews are used to filibusters, hate them, tend to step on filibusters to get to something of interest to the audience. Allowing for 30 minute sit-downs seems to me a minimum, but sometimes a quarter-hour will do. Length is the interviewee's friend, not enemy. Length allows for humor and personality to surface, and for complete answers to complicated questions. In the new era, you aren't checking off boxes by compiling lists of those you have sat down with, you are reaching deep into the social media world via every new subject matter covered, every question asked and answered. Give yourself time to make the connections and sell.