Unlike Barack Obama, you do not need to
be a senator, a Harvard graduate, a lawyer, or a community organizer
for Obama's game plan to work. You only need to leverage your unique
background along these general lines.
Four leading factors combined to propel
Obama to become the first non-white president of the United States.
Exactly how did the "biracial" Senator Barack Obama pull
off this historic victory?
(1) In light of the events of the
times, Obama identified the main problem that most people were
facing. Then he defined solutions to target those problems. What were
the events that Obama tapped into?
First, there was the unpopular war in
Iraq coupled with the abysmal approval rating of President Bush tied
to that war. Next, there was the higher cost of living in the form of
rising food and fuel prices. Third, the meltdown on Wall Street and
the much debated government bailout of Wall Street fat cats. Add to
that the consensus that this is the worst economy since the Great
Depression. All that doom and gloom permeated the landscape, making
for a very hostile environment for the Republican Party, which most
Americans blame for these crises.
The day that Obama learned from Hillary
Clinton the common language of how to speak of the economy in a way
that any struggling, working American could understand was the day
that set Senator Obama on the path to victory. It only benefited
Obama that the economy was not his opponent's strong suit, and when
John McCain picked a running mate who failed to fill that void, Obama
had the winds pumping strongly into his sail all the way to the White
House.
(2) Barack maximized his skill as a
community organizer. More than any other, this background makes
Barack a relational person, who knows how to bring people together in
search of practical solutions to real problems.
That's how Obama built the best-run
political campaign in American history. From raising more than $600
million in small donations from ordinary Americans to getting his
foot soldiers to canvass door to door, the very "experience",
which Republicans mocked as "lack of experience" turned out
to be one of the most effective weapons in Obama's arsenal in the
race for president.
The next time another candidate marches
on the political stage and says, "I have experience as a
community organizer," few American politicians will respond with
scornful laughter and jabs. Instead, they are likely to treat such a
credential with the utmost gravity it deserves and the attention it
demands. Being a community organizer has just become a big deal in
American politics.
From now on, we can appreciate the fact
that "experience" refers to the totality of one's life.
Experience is not limited to military service or time spent in
Washington or in a governor's mansion. Anyone old enough to be 35,
smart enough to earn a college degree, and skilled enough to organize
a community of people to effect change has sufficient "experience"
to run for president of the United States. It does not take
extraordinary intelligence or exceptional experience to be elected
President. The ability to work with people, especially when people
perceive the candidate to have that ability, can be the most
important ingredient in running for high office. The only other
quality left to be added to that dose of experience is how the person
perform once he or she steps onto the national stage, and that's for
the voters to perceive and decide.
(3) Barack Obama leveraged his own
personality to help him appear a winner before he became a winner. No
matter how his opponents tried to tie Barack to black liberation
theologian Jeremiah Wright and the "unrepentant terrorist"
Bill Ayers, or to cast him as a radical extreme leftist, the most
liberal person to ever run for the presidency of the United States,
or as an undercover Muslim being set up to convert America into an
Islamic state under Sharia law, it was practically impossible for any
of those scary, nearly Satanic portraits to fit the Obama that
America saw on the campaign trail. Ordinary Americans saw Barack as a
'nice family man' that they could listen to, that would listen to
them and understand their perils and problems.
Most remarkable was the fact that not
once did Obama make race a major issue in his campaign. His political
acumen was such that he understood instinctively that dwelling on
race would be the undoing of his campaign, so he avoided racial talk
like a mine field. It worked big time.
(4) Most importantly, Obama mastered
his temperament and never let it get the best of him. Dr. Howard Dean
lost control and shouted himself out of the race for president. Al
Gore and John Kerry got distracted with frustrations and sighs that
showed often, as their opponents got under their skin. Hillary
Clinton, and her husband Bill Clinton, blew up a time or two to let
out some political heat and steam.
Barack never succumbed to any of that.
While the system may have forgiven a white politician for losing
his/her cool, the system may not display such grace for a black or
brown candidate. And Obama sensed that, and he knew he had to remain
a class act throughout.
So, whether he was down in the polls,
lost key primary races to Hillary Clinton, forced to defend his
associations with "radicals", called an extreme liberal or
socialist, Obama maintained an even keel. His mature demeanor came
through in the debates, first with Senator Clinton, and later with
Senator McCain. Not once did he lose his cool. Some mistook his
serene disposition as being aloof and elite, but not even that
knocked him off balance.
Throughout his campaigns, Obama managed
to go on the attack without appearing like a negative campaigner.
Then came the Wall Street meltdown, and the contrast between McCain's
up-and-down reaction and Obama's steady calmness and consistency
could not have been sharper. In every way and at every turn, Barack
belied the caricature of 'the angry black man', who feels America
owes him something. On the contrary, Americans began to see Obama as
well balanced and measured, the more presidential of the leading
candidates of the two major political parties. And that's exactly
what the American people decided to make him November 4, 2008 --
their 44th president.
tweet this!