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| Topic: 10 reasons Obama won | |
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Edited by
uk1971
on
Wed 11/05/08 02:57 AM
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If there was an open-ended book that told the journey of America, one wonders how big, important and historic the chapter on this 2008 election would be.
There were so many “first-time-ever” moments, so many groundbreaking choices and so many unexpected developments that one believes America just experienced a major plot line twist in the turbulent narrative of your history. Now that the longest and most expensive election season is mercifully over, it is time to make a step back and take a more relaxed, unbiased, and analytical look at all the factors that shaped and ultimately predetermined the final outcome. Most historians will probably agree that it wasn’t just one or two things that decided the election, but rather a complex amalgamation of events, decisions, strategies and characters. Just revisiting the whirlwind of madness and campaign surprises in the last two months is a daunting task. We won’t have to wait long before dissertations, books, and personal accounts are written, taking us to the kitchen and giving us a better glimpse at every choice and every error that propelled one campaign and damaged the other. Counting down from least to most important, here are just ten of the factors I believe were largely responsible for what happened today at the voting booth: Reason # 10: OUR TIMES YouTube didn’t even exist in 2004 and podcasting was yet to become a word. Video compression was still struggling to make files smaller and easily available. Internet was a player in the Kerry-Bush election but not on the monumental scale that it is today. Social networks became a massive vehicle for political message delivery and consumer generated content, often outperformed traditional media. The younger, savvier, and more webgenic (I should trademark that one) Obama acclimated faster and more intuitively to the new digital environment. He quickly gathered nearly 1million “friends” on MySpace and went viral on Internet video with his message and persona. He had an immediate presence on YouTube with his own channel not to mention the young fanatics generating their own content. It’s not that McCain’s people didn’t try – they did but his political avatar seemed artificial and forced. Obama was so far ahead of the curve that he came up with another first and programmed his advertisements inside video games, reaching simultaneously young voters and my good 44 year old buddy and game addict Mark from Lenexa. Reason # 9: MONEY Barack Obama’s charisma combined with a competent team proved to be a fund raising machine, breaking every imaginable record and unwillingly raising the question whether the whole mechanism shouldn’t be overhauled and regulated with spending caps. His campaign had accumulated the kind of funds that should make all of us uncomfortable. Barack’s integrity as a president will, no doubt, come under fire every time his executive decisions coincide with special interest donations. As voters, we should hope and insist that the system is changed before the next election. At the end, Obama had so much money that he came up with another cutting edge maneuver: flooding prime time blocks of TV airtime with hyper-effective, superbly produced infomercials. These were so good, that one day I expect to see them in political science textbooks. Reason # 8: JOE THE PLUMBER Demographic segmentation was a successful device in the last few elections. “The Angry White Male” went republican in 1994, Dole tried to romance “The Soccer Mom” in 1996, and Bush Jr. captured the perpetual left turn imagination of “The Nascar Dad” in 2004. So naturally, McCain tried rather desperately to carve a voting bloc borrowing the same divisive strategy for his campaign. I firmly believe that this backfired. The general public simply got tired and felt patronized by this ridiculous social segmentation. Who in the world is “Joe six pack” and why should he be different from “Steve gin and tonic” and “Sally mocaccino”? And before designating someone “Joe the Plumber”, mentioning his imaginary demographic 20 times in your debate, and using him as a campaign capital, please make sure that he actually is a plumber or that at least his name is Joe. Now, that Sam (his real name) has hired an agent to get him a country music contract, the entire Joe the Plumber debacle is a complete joke the plumber. At the end none of that silliness mattered as it became obvious that all the hockey moms, Joe six packs, and even Hanging Chads in the world can’t compensate for lack of substance and compelling agenda. Reason # 7: RUNNING MATES Initially, I wasn’t convinced that Barack Obama made the right choice by picking Joe Biden as his running mate. Then came the one and only vice presidential debate and Joe “six pack” (he’s been doing crunches) Biden smacked a 500 foot homerun. He came across as extremely knowledgeable, intelligent, caring, funny, gracious, calm, tough, human and…overqualified. Yes, Biden was so overwhelmingly good at the debate that I couldn’t help but think that he is more ready to be president than Obama. His opponent didn’t perform badly. Take away a few ill-advised mannerisms and she exceeded every expectation – it’s just that he took it out of the ball park in every aspect. I’ll go against the grain here and say that John McCain’s pick was a brilliant if selfish move. It was a cosmetic procedure that he knew was urgently needed. Don’t forget that his campaign was basically left for dead in the political morgue just before the convention. Sarah Palin’s charisma and speech reading bravado at least got it back on its feet and moving. Sure, it was a slow walking zombie strut but at least now it was on the streets looking for a bite of flesh to eat. Unfortunately for McCain, Palin’s inexperience and massive deficiencies were discovered almost immediately. As mentioned, this is the information age and every little mistake is instantly identified, magnified and distributed virally around the world. Her interviews were unprecedented, scandalous disasters. As a concept, Sarah might have worked in Dan Quayle times but the 21st century is a different story and I’m sure McCain wished many times that not a sound would come out every time she opened her mouth in front of the press...like a real barracuda. Reason # 6: BRANDING AND MARKETING It’s all about formulating your identity, branding an uncomplicated message and marketing it to everybody over the age of 18, isn’t it? Obama, managed by a team of brilliant Washington outsiders, was able to package, market and distribute his charismatic self and easily digestible message of “change”. McCain on the other hand struggled to find an electable identity and clear voice, losing himself inside the ambiguous labyrinths of his “maverick” persona. Reason # 5: JOHN MCCAIN Just a few months ago it was hard not to respect and value Senator John McCain. An independent thinking war hero that habitually ignored party lines to make the right decision, he was perceived as man of integrity and honor. But with his back pushed to the wall by a powerful Obama campaign, McCain changed dramatically. It was a stunning, negative transformation that can only be explained with his campaign management team – I have a hard time believing that almost overnight the Senator from Arizona compromised almost everything he stood for. He hired the same shady, mud slinging characters that he criticized for swift boating fellow war hero Kerry in 2004. Karl Rove, the man he loathed, became a consultant for his own campaign. Unable to come up with superior plan on the issues, he focused on his opponent. In the last month, his entire strategy was centered on digging through Obama’s history trash bin in search of irrelevant past relationships. He treated his opponent with utter disrespect during the first two debates and used up his campaign funds almost exclusively for negative robo-calls and TV commercials. His temper and demeanor became points of concern for voters. At this point, I am convinced that the McCain of old wouldn’t have voted for his new self on November 4th. Reason # 4: BARACK OBAMA Whether you want to use the cultural ethnonym “WASP” or not, it is hard to argue that for the last 232 years, The United States of America has had more or less the same president. Caucasian, prosperous members of the powerful political elite had pretty much usurped the executive branch. They were Johns, and Georges, and Richards, and Jims. They often went by Jr. or the II or the III. Now we will have a man called Barrack Obama in the White House and America’s historic decision speaks volumes about the way this country has changed. The United States of America has always searched for national identity in the melting pot designation and in the idea that anything is possible in the land of opportunity. Barack Obama is the epitome of this concept. He is bi-racial, multicultural, open minded and self-made – in many ways he is America. Obama came to the political scene at the right moment and with the right tools. We needed a charismatic, resourceful leader with fresh ideas, intelligence and solid integrity. Obama is that man. He is a born politician, who can energize a crowd with his sheer presence and convey his message with ease and emotion. Here is something very indicative of Barack’s character: in his giant 30 minute infomercial he never once spoke against McCain’s character or Sarah Palin’s weaknesses. He respects his opponent and this presidential quality will be reflected in the way he administers his power. Reason # 3: GEORGE W. BUSH In the end, it was the catastrophic 8-year reign of the worst president in the United States of America that decided the election long before it even started. Everything hurricane “George” touched turned to dust: the economy, international diplomacy, wars, crisis events, ecology, energy policy, education reform, etc., etc., etc. Almost every major decision taken by this administration had either disastrous or destructive consequences. There was an unparalleled level of incompetence and lack of accountability in the White House. The so-called Bush doctrine is a scam: it doesn’t exist because its policies are simply chaotic decisions and desperate adjustments driven not by strategy but by special interests and greed. In observing the election I probably have the advantage of being an outsider: someone who has been raised in a foreign country without allegiance or prejudice to either party. To me, both major parties hold pretty much the same ideals and share the same master plan for America. I’ve always held the Republican party in very high regard relative to its history, vision and last but not least contributions to the demise of communism. To me George W. Bush shamelessly betrayed the Republican Party and its legacy. Running 5 trillion dollar deficits, nurturing a monstrous bureaucracy, inventing reasons for a preemptive war on-the-go, torturing prisoners against international law, re-writing the constitution and spending lavishly non-existing political and financial currency goes against every Republican principle. This probably explains why a few hours ago so many of my Republican friends voted for Obama. The country realized the gravity of its predicament and how crucial it is to never again vote simply for “the guy you’d rather have a beer with”. Poor John McCain tried so hard to disassociate himself from the tainted Bush legacy but such effort was always a doomed, Sisyphusian task. All Obama needed to do was simply mention the name “Bush” and McCain in the same sentence. “Change” was the code word adopted by both campaigns but it came far more fluently to the Democratic candidate. It didn’t help that McCain decided to absorb some of the current administration’s residual military testosterone and declare a stubborn stance on the unpopular presence Iraq. Looking back, it was the inescapable, ominous shadow of the Bush factor that decided this historic election. Reason #2: SAME AS REASON #3 Reason #1: SAME AS REASON #3 AND REASON #2 At the end, I believe November 4th, 2008 gave all of us a historic opportunity to participate in a one-of-a-kind election. We will look back at this day years from now as one of the defining moments of this country’s epic trajectory. This was not a victory for Obama and the Democrats. This was a victory for all of America: Republicans, liberals, independents, blacks, whites…Americans. It was a victory for change and hope, because eight years deep into the 21st century, we are finally ready to actually enter the new Millennium the way we are supposed to: by embracing the beginning of an entirely new era. CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!    
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WHOO-HOO! LONG LIVE THE USSA!
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"sisyphusian"..???
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1. Because baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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