Today, Obama-lovers in the USA, Canada, Indonesia, France, Mexico, Germany, Kenya, Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Netherlands and indeed across the globe, will keep fingers tightly crossed as they wait for America to vote for hope to be realized in the most audacious manner. There are many who will stay up through ungodly hours in different time zones, glued to TV or radio sets, waiting for the results of the US elections to roll in and to celebrate a likely Obama victory.
His exotic origins have played up in his favour. He is bi-racial, born out of the black groin of Africa by way of Kenya and the white womb of Kansas. He spent five of his formative years in Indonesia and grew up in Hawaii. A cross-cultural exposure early in his life makes him such a unique citizen of the world.
But as is always the case, nature ends somewhere and nurture takes over. Obama looks good and sounds good. He is a gorgeous heart-throb, eloquent and charismatic. He projects a sweet disposition and temperament. That is nature.
Nurture steps in in various aspects of the Obama story. The success of Obama’s campaign is not a result of luck. For a person with Hussein for middle name and the eerie resemblance of his first name to Osama (aka Bin Laden), he is an unlikely person to come this close to the USA presidency in a post 9/11 era. Instead, Obama appears to be a classic case of preparation meeting opportunity. He is a phenomenal public speaker who can draw in listeners, placing them in awe. He seems to have an uncanny ability to shake off challenges and move on, unscathed.
Obama has campaigned on the rhetoric of change. What change? Change from a global weariness of President Bush. First, is the spill-over of the weakened US economy into the global market-place. Also, the Bush wars have been exhausting. There is the quagmire of Iraq, the war-fatigue in Afghanistan but worst of all, there is the open-ended ‘War on Terror’. So Obama launched the change rhetoric as a message strategy, and stuck to it.
Obama’s training might hold part of the secret to his successful campaign. After graduating from the prestigious Harvard Law School, instead of taking a high-flying corporate legal job, he went into the trenches in the rough south-side of Chicago as a Community Organizer. Not surprisingly, his campaign has been organized as a well-oiled engine of a nation-wide grass-roots movement. Through effective organizing, characterized by superior ground operation, he grew a large army of passionate professional volunteers who then carried the campaign to the masses. He ignited interest in voting, getting people who have never voted to register. His campaign did not just become a movement. He himself has become a strong brand.
The initial results of his magic showed when he won the primaries in lily-white Iowa. That improbable success signified his first early major boost of energy to mark him as someone who could transcend race. He has since effectively applied the techniques of organizing from the microcosm up to the macrocosm.
Obama is an e-candidate who, like no other politician anywhere, has used cutting-edge communications technology to buttress his bid for public office. Through the Internet, he raised unprecedented record-breaking funds. Other Internet tools like blogs and social networking has helped fuel Obama’s campaign further. As an Internet savvy politician, Obama had a clear advantage of Internet presence over his older rival who is Internet illiterate.
He accepted his party’s presidential nomination August 28 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the famous Rev Martin Luther King Jr “I have a dream speech”. As if the event and coincidence were not enough, the 84,000 Congress participants were asked to send text messages to the campaign and to make phone calls to people they know. This was another innovative fund-raising, data gathering and voter mobilization drive.
In the past week, to bring a fitting closure to a well-run e-campaign, Obama run 700 thirty minute infomercials (advertisements) simultaneously everyday on several TV channels during prime time evening shows. Through this strategy, Obama’s campaign sucked as much publicity oxygen as was needed to the end.
Beyond technology, his human touch has propelled his rise. After all, leadership is multi-faceted; it’s both software and hardware. During the long-drawn out primaries of his party, especially the long stretch tussle between him and Senator Hillary Clinton, it appeared as if the relationship between him and the powerful Clinton couple had been bruised beyond healing. Yet, healing occurred and he and the Clinton’s have campaigned side-by-side. The repaired relationship might have drawn many disgruntled Clinton supporters to him.
Obama run a tight campaign based on sensible strategic and tactical moves. Although he had twice as many campaign offices as McCain and definitely more than any other US presidential candidate in history, he held things together like a tight ship. There was clarity on who says what to whom, not a lose collection of characters who wield tags as spokespersons.
It’s not as if Obama’s campaign hit no road-blocks. Problems are part of living. It’s how we manage them that determine success or failure. Negative news suck out oxygen from campaigns. In politics, when there are miss-steps or rivals hit you hard with rumours, you don’t stay in denial, praying for the scandals to vanish. The best strategy is to respond to the accusations promptly and clearly, leaving no or little room for doubt.
One of the big hitters that almost destroyed Obama’s campaign was when his pastor of over twenty years, Jeremiah Wright, made explosive racist and hateful pronouncements. True to form, Obama used the opportunity to make a major public speech to address the delicate issue of race in America. In the speech, he made some key self-disclosures to expose his own frailty. By so doing, he dealt with the difficult matter and moved on.
Throughout the campaign, even as his rock star persona grew, various aspects of his personality continued to show. He has a funny side.
In the two years, Obama has greyed fast. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.” Obama has worked really hard. Through his campaign, he put the power of effective communication and leadership tools to the test. His meteoric rise has not been by accident. The messianic unmeasured expectations of him are nerve-racking though. What if, as President Obama, he violates expectations? Then, the disappointments will follow. Then…….
The Obama campaign offers several lessons. They include:
• Campaigns must be organized in a methodical fashion, grounded in research, well-planned, well-executed and tightly-run, leaving little or nothing to chance.
• Have a profound, memorable message that is electorate-centred not candidate-centred. Stay on that message consistently. The main text, sub-text and mini-messages must all tie in to the central message theme.
• Begin campaigns with a strong grass-roots organization as a firm base, and later, crown it with a massive media blitz that efficiently and effectively uses a combination of multiple cutting-edge and old communication tools. Creativity pays.
• A strong professional team is priceless.
• Charisma is a bonus; Good public speaking skills precious.
• Candidates must remember that people are watching them and their team – all the time. Don’t unravel in public, in plain view.
• Manage internal crises internally and quickly. When faced with scandals, deal with them head on; be truthful. Playing games and not clearing the air promptly can cost you – a lot.
• Elections are not ‘do or die’ events.
• Supporters should donate money to candidates and political party; not the other way round.
• Ending is as important as the beginning so go out with a bang!
• Have fun; keep things alive and remember that after all, you’re dealing with human beings. Being pleasant pays – a lot.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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