Action Man
Tuesday March 11 2008
I just realized something about Hillary's
3am ad. The
real message is
"When a problem appears, I don't wait, I deal with it right away"
That is the message. She doesn't say that she hasn't planned for stuff and that she isn't thinking, that's implied. This is also what the current President does and it really is a quality. Trying to do the right thing get people stuck and it's common. People trust a doer.
People don't trust someone without experience. Why?
The inexperience issue is a proxy for not getting things done. Inexperience is about two things, doing something and doing it right.
Obama has proven that can do the Presidency right, he's proven overwhelmingly that he knows what to do.
Now it's time for him to show people that he's a doer, that he gets things
done. That is the other side of inexperience. That's what people are
looking for when they say he doesn't have the experience.
A man of action
The Obama campaign should frame campaign messages accordingly.
From now on he's doing stuff, he's acting. And it's not about portraying
him as something he isn't. It's about showing his active sides. Instead
of showing
him horizontally on the couch in the campaign bus (Axelrod standing up,
doing the work) journalists should see him when he's working and
take pictures of him working. The campaign should put out images of Obama
jogging, assembling people, building stuff, opening up the store, sending
a bill to Congress, driving a car, that pic of Barack as a kid riding
the little bike, 
whatever. Every action he performs should be documented
and conveyed to the people, media, youtube everywhere. They should talk
and write about him in active terms (building, walking, writing, playing,
washing dishes).
People know he's a regular guy,
now we want to see the extraordinary leader, the man getting things done.
Because he is a doer, clearly, and it's time to start showing that side
of him (check the images in searches for Obama
working, Obama
writing or Obama
building,
it's just pictures of him shaking hands or speaking to a crowd, no real
work getting done:-)
They could call it "Building a Better America" or "Changing
Washington" or "Changing America Now" or something else that
implies that he's acting now.
An active campaign
Another part is the campaign. We've already seen
a lot of his active campaign with volunteers and precinct captains but
we haven't seen much of it as a reflection of Obama's actions. He says
his campaign reflects his leadership skills. Sure. Then show us when
you plan the campaign with your advisors, when you give people directions,
how you're the first person to pick up a tool and start working (as long
as it's true, as long as it shows us the real Barack Obama). Show us some action.
An active movement
A third part is ads, speeches and policies. Hillary's 3am ad implies that she is a doer, that she deals with problems right away when they appear. Dealing with a problem might take two months of planning but at least she won't sit still for one month before those two months of planning, she'll start today, right now actually. That's part of the message of the 3am ad.
Barack should send similar action signals based on all his knowledge, his plans and his movement.
He should start implementing stuff. The problems are there and they need to be dealt with right now. We really can't wait.
For example, the environment is deteriorating. Barack is dealing with it now. "Last night he met with five executives in Pittsburgh, showing them his plan for environmental standards, asking them to reply within thirty days to show him how they'll change their companies according to his new directives."
People are losing their homes in Philadelphia. It's happening right now and
Obama has called former colleagues, community organizers, to gather their
people, to go out and help the homeless and educate people who are getting
involved. He's giving directives and explaining stuff, getting people
out there.
Getting involved in the campaign should also be about getting involved in the actual problems. From now on they should be one and the same.
Do
"Yes we can" sends a message. It says "we want to do things but we're not doing them yet". It's what a child says when someone says you can't. "Yes we can" is a good message, it means you won't take no for an answer.
But then you need to prove that you can deliver, that you do something. So the next step from "yes we can" is "we're doing it" (they need better phrases of course).
On the campaign website there are lots of policy papers, called "Where Obama Stands". A paper like " Where Obama Stands: On Foreign Policy" could be called "What Obama is Doing: On Foreign Policy" (assuming they add information about what is happening now concerning Foreign Policy).
Conclusion
The minute Obama starts showing his active side, the inexperience issue becomes a smaller problem.
Related
For those of you interested in Barack's basketball skills here are two clips
Photos of Barack Obama biking in Chicago with his family
I wondered what the white thing at the back of his bike was. First I thought it was some kind of tool to help him from falling but then I realized it's connected to a cart carrying his daughters:-)