How Barack Obama Won the U. S. Presidency
Obama Team Has Re-written the How-to-Get-Elected Text
Nov 5, 2008
Presidential campaigns may never be the same again. Barack Obama convinced a needy, neglected electorate that he saw and understood how badly the Bush administration had failed to protect Americans--protect them from terrorism, protect them from deadly weather phenomena, protect their jobs, their pocketbooks and their homes.
Americans were ripe for change. That need was identified and change became the watchword of a campaign that made history. When McCain spoke change it didn't resonate with fed-up Americans.
The Winning Formula
Here are some of the ingredients of Obama's success:
- He belongs to the generation that knows how to use technology to reach, then captivate, people at the grass roots level, yielding both campaign financing and votes.
- His message around change rang true; his rhetoric and body language conveyed sincerity.
- He kept his cool during false charges and vitriolic attacks by John McCain and Sarah Palin.
- His message attracted the attention of thousands of new voters--people who had never voted before and the country's youngest voters.
- His Afro-American background, instead of being a handicap, signaled change to everyone who saw him. A win by Obama would make history just by virtue of his racial mixture. Symbolically, the barriers that one important change would knock down could lead to other kinds of change.
- He made a winning case for good judgment, showing that it need not come from decades of experience and can be more valuable than multiple terms in the political arena.
Springboard to America's Future
The stock exchange had its biggest election day rally in 24 years. Leaders of foreign countries have said they are relieved at the election outcome. Civil Rights workers from the 1960s and 1970s now have a graphic example of how they really did make a difference.
Obama winning the presidency is proof--at a time when many have had their doubts--that everything is possible.
The springboard to America's future is beckoning to people poised to answer Obama's election night challenge. He asked Americans to roll up their sleeves and help him meet what are probably the most difficult problems any president has had to struggle with since the Civil War.
High Expectations
Because Barack Obama has overcome so much, people will have high expectations of him. He will need to find ways to keep hopes high and enthusiasm alive in those who voted him into office. At the same time, he has to engage and inspire those who didn't vote for him.
Americans expect Obama to channel the ingredients and techniques that got him to the White House into large scale problem-solving. Hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific are pinning their hopes on him. They believe he has a winning formula.
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