Marketing change in the Democratic Primaries, Part 2 – competing definitions
Barack Obama is running almost purely as the candidate of change, and has been for his whole political career. Accordingly, he has the most complex, multi-faceted, and well-developed change message of any major candidate in either party, even ahead of libertarian/survivalist Republican Ron Paul.
When I visited BarackObama.com on Sunday, the first three slogans I saw were
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“Change we can believe in” (his overall campaign tagline)
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“New Hampshire – Our time for change has come”
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“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington … I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
And it continues from there. Obama has been active in various return-the-government-to-the-people kinds of issues – campaign finance reform, a search engine of government information (which he presented on the debate as a big deal), and so on. His “Let’s be united, not divided” message is couched in terms of change. His recent book title “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” is full of words with connotations of change. He calls himself a “progressive.” He even compares himself to Martin Luther King. And his campaign hardly shies away from the suggestion that Obama’s very skin color would, if he were elected, represent dramatic change.
John Edwards’ message is similar, but at its core he’s pushing a narrower, classically populist concept of “change.” Read more
| Categories: "Change", Barack Obama, Campaign 2008, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Political marketing | 1 Comment |
Marketing change in the Democratic Primaries, Part 1 — different approaches
At Saturday’s New Hampshire debate among four Democratic contenders – Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Barack Obama, and John Edwards – the central theme was change. All the Democratic candidates agreed on four basic concepts:
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Change from the Bush Administration is paramount.
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Change has something to do with helping the poor, the working class, and children.
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Change in Iraq policy – specifically, bringing US troops home from Iraq – is mandatory.
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Change in health care insurance is important.
No surprises so far – the first three are obvious Democratic positions, and the fourth has been a major Democratic theme since early in the Bill Clinton Administration.
But the debate also highlighted considerable disagreement and competition to further define what “change” entails. Read more
| Categories: "Change", Barack Obama, Campaign 2008, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Political marketing | 1 Comment |