Obama and Communications

The recent United States Presidential election has truly highlighted the role that effective communications can play in a running a successful campaign be it local, state/provincial or federal. The Obama campaign from the very beginning seemed to understand the new media outlets and mediums available to the candidates. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace played a major role in reaching an apathetic and disenfranchised segment of the population who had been ignored by politicans since the campaign of Bill Clinton. When the negative attacks began to mount from the Republican Party the Obama team did an excellent job of judging the political climate of the electorate and instead of sinking to the juvenile level of their attackers chose to rise above. In response they Obama campaign issued straight forward and simple denials of even the most outrages claims. The Obama campaign has been cited by even Republican strategists as a near perfect campaign and I feel this has a lot to do with how the communications were handled by those closest to President-Elect Obama. Those seeking public office in the future would be wise to keep this in mind, defense might win championships but effective communications wins Presidencies.

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