Category — USA Elections 2008

Much to take away from Sarah Palin’s speech the other night but one thing I like to touch upon which has been the subject of much commentary is the comment about community organisers which was also mentioned by Rudy Guilani in his speech preceding hers.

From the take from the speech and the commentary that followed, it appeared that the whole concept of community organization is some radical liberal program which should be stamped out at the first chance the Republicans get in returning to the White House. But as we all know, community organizers are part of the non-governmental organizations that step into communities when no one else will.

We know of Barack Obama’s background as a community organizer and it is featured in his advertising and his speeches. We also know that some of the resistance to him in polling comes from various blue collar groups. Perhaps, this criticism provides an opening for the Obama camp in terms of new advertising in a way as an outreach to those groups. To show other community organizers making a difference in towns across America; ordinary people making an extra-ordinary difference in the lives in others.

For example, feature a true community organizer like this:

Jane: My name is Jane Wilcox of Anywhere USA and I am a community organizer and a single mother of two.

[feature scenes of Jane working in her role]
VO: My life is dedicated to my community in making a difference doing [counseling, teaching, support]. When I hear Republicans like Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin knocking community organizations down, I wonder if they know what it is like in the Real America where people are struggling to find jobs and keep their homes. It is a tough job but Barack Obama knows what it is like working to improve the lives of his fellow Americans and that is why I am supporting him.

There is much to work with from those critical and truthfully vicious speeches from Republicans as a counter attack but I think a approach like this will help reinforce the difference between Democrats, who build people up, and Republicans who only seek to tear people down.

It has been several days of non-stop information flooding the news with new revelations of Sarah Palin’s past and her political philosophy. Yet, other than a statement released today by Robert Gibbs that focuses on her reformer credentials, the Obama camp has been quiet. Why?

Given her statements and decisions on things like the Bridge to Nowhere, pork barrel politics than even McCain would never countenance, her strong fundamentalist beliefs, goofy statements on being vice president and so forth, there are plenty of things that the Obama can launch advertising on without even bringing up her family and or anything related to gender.

It seems to me that the Obama is allowing the media to do all of the work so as to avoid getting caught in the fray. So far that is working out fairly well. All of the commentary talk is about her rather than him or even McCain and initially that has worked to his benefit.

Thing though is that the information is coming out scatter shot. There is no defined overall narrative about her. The only one that is going on is the lack of vetting by the McCain camp and the rush to decision. That may be a good thing but we would not know for sure until much later. But will it be enough to rely on that narrative to show how poorly McCain makes decisions?
Or should the narrative should be about her in one or two lines which are not so much about her but rather cast uncertainty about McCain and what he stands for and what kind of government he would run as a President?

For this is what the Obama camp should do. Give focus to the media to concentrate on one or two aspects of the Palin vice president candidacy and let that drive the narrative much in the way McCain created a narrative about Obama’s so called celebrity status with just one or two ads.

At some point, perhaps very soon, the well will be dry of any new revelations about Palin and the media will move on. If the Obama camp waits too long, an opportunity will be missed to define Sarah Palin and by inference a McCain presidency.

It’s time to take the initiative.

How this video of an event 45 years ago today

 

made this moment possible

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A drizzlily day today which is quite welcome after a long dry period. Coolness is appreciated too. Starting to feel a bit like fall… Speaking of fall, yesterday was the start of the new school year. Christen is now a freshman at Parkland High. Seems it was not too long ago she was just starting first grade…. Bookmarks is coming back to Winston again on September 13th. Definitely need to check it out and I plan to stay longer than last year where it was just two hours of time. Really nice lineup of authours. Last year’s highlight was Elizabeth Edwards which upon reflection, seems a bit more poigant now considering what has happened to her since then… Speaking of politics, the Democratic convention kicked off last night. Full bore coverage on all of the cable news networks though the coverage seems to be endlessly fixated on the so-called dispute between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But I think for the moment, all of that was overshadowed by seeing Senator Ted Kennedy stride onto the stage to give a speech speaking to the themes of the night. But by far the night was  Michelle Obama’s. She gave a superlative speech on family, values and what it is like struggling against the odds and succeeding. It was leavened by heartfelt emotion and vivid imagery that everyone can relate to. As the pace of the election quickens, her ability to reach out to women will be invaluable.

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Note

Located at the Lowery Building on Fourth Street, this headquarter building gives every indication that North Carolina will be a battleground state for the presidential election.

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Note

His second cover of the year.

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After 54 contests, the Democratic primary season is over and Barack Obama is the party nominee. A combination of super-delegate pledges and elected delegates from the primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

It was quite a contrast hearing speeches from Obama, John McCain and Hilary Clinton tonight. McCain is not a good stump speaker by no means and he just seemed awful giving that stilted speech punctuated by what looked like forced grins. His small audience seemed older than he was and by God did he looked old on television. Clinton remained defiant to the end and barely acknowledged that Obama existed let alone that he has become the presumptive nominee. Totally ungracious in a speech that was totally about herself and little of the party or of the future.

Obama gave another masterful speech. Far more gracious than he should have been to Clinton, he outlined the differences between himself and McCain in stark terms and he has set the tenor in how this election will go forward. It was a strong speech dedicated to his grandmother, full of hope for the future for a better country and a better world.

So how did Obama managed to achieve this outstanding victory? No doubt in large part to his charismatic personality and eloquence but he also worked hard for it and had an exceptional team that out organised, out managed and out campaigned every other campaign out there Democratic or Republican. Clinton managed to have a strong showing in the later part of the campaign only due to her force of personality and high name recognition in the states that were demographically more favorably disposed towards her than Obama.

It was helpful for Obama too to have some luck on his side. A strong showing by Edwards in the early primaries drew off support for Clinton and gave Obama a chance to establish himself. Poor organisation by Clinton in not having a plan after February 5th also worked well. With some many states in play on the same day, Obama could take advantage of the primaries rules and worked on states in which he had no competition. While she crowed about her big wins in New York and California, on the delegate side, Obama was racking impressive totals in the smaller states. At the end of the night, he won more states and more net delegates an advantage that he never really yielded after that date. For Clinton, the inability to do anything after the Feb 5th primaries gave Obama the unbeaten string of 11 primary wins which gave him the momentum to start becoming the front runner and made people seriously think of him as a president.

Other factors like the proportional primaries that diminished the impact of the big state wins that Clinton had and even the botched moves by Florida and Michigan to move up their primaries and ended up costing Clinton much needed delegates and momentum all had a role to play.

In the end, though, it is all about the man. That man in Barack Obama

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