Bush vs. Obama: Tag Cloud Edition

Two men. Two speeches. Two watershed moments in our recent history. Seems to me President Obama really highlighted a "New Nation" where President Bush had a lot to say about "Freedom."

Obama's First Inaugural Speech (2009)



Bush's Second Inaugural Speech (2005)



gracias to ReadWriteWeb

From MLK to Obama: a (very) brief history

Tomorrow our great nation will inaugurate the 44th President who also happens to be the first African-American to hold this ultimate office. But today we remember one of our country's greatest leaders: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Two score and five years ago, he headed to Washington, D.C. to give a speech entitled "Normalcy Never Again" (aka "I Have a Dream.") On that day, our country finally began the healing process that President Lincoln laid the groundwork for with his great proclamation.

I can hardly imagine how Martin Luther King, Jr. would feel if he had lived to see today. In theory his dream has become reality. His sons and daughters have the freedom to play with children of all colors.

But what about that other bit? You know the one about being judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. Well, that gets a bit more tricky.

We have Civil Rights Laws, Affirmative Action, NAACP, and countless other measures to try to ensure that his dream continues to become reality.

I use the word "continues", because I don't think we're there yet. We've made a ton of progress, but I believe we have a long way to go. From Rodney King to the Jena Six, racially motivated hate crimes have not gone away.

As talented and controversial poet, Kanye West, coined "Racism still alive, they just be concealing it." It's all around us. You've seen, and I've seen it. Today we call it by different names, but prejudice will not die at the stake tomorrow as President Elect Obama takes the oath of office.

But one thing should happen. We should all pause to take a step back. Take a giant breath. And realize just how far we've come.

Tomorrow our country will turn a figurative page in yet another chapter in our storied history. Our Union may still be imperfect, but we're striving feverishly. And that gives me great hope.

Normalcy, never again.

Why Obama Won: A Marketer's Perspective

Everyone should study their trade of choice. I am a marketer. Therefore, I am prone to follow the latest trends and triumphs in the world of marketing. There are tons of brands and companies to learn from. But marketing reaches well beyond the business world.

Regardless of your political stripe, the current presidential election cycle (all 20 months of it) has taught us much about marketing.

First off, we saw an unknown product with a strange name become an industry leader in four short years. The Presidential Industry is known for heavily entrenched brands (Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, Roosevelt) making this feat all the more monumental.

President-elect Barack Obama's rise from DNC keynote speaker to President closely resembles Apple's entrance and lighting quick domination of the smartphone market.

Obama's Campaign and Apple's iPhone both offered positions of differentiation that competition attempted to copy. For iPhone it was the touchscreen and App Store. For Obama it was his promise of change and hope. In the end, the first to market won in both cases.

Secondly, Obama's geek squad intimately understood the emerging power of social media. They were able to outshine McCain on every social media platform known to man.

But any marketer will tell you that millions of Facebook fans, YouTube views, and Diggs are useless if you aren't able to turn those clicks into real world actions.

For the first time in politics, we saw the perfect marriage of social marketing and community organizing. Obamaniacs could log into my.barackobama.com and pull up lists of registered Democrats and Independents to call, neighborhood doors to knock on, and offices to volunteer at.

Brilliant. Consumer to consumer marketing at it's finest. These supporters were marketing Brand Obama on their own dime and out of their own accord.

There's no denying that Obama had the better organized, more mobilized, energetic tribe of supporters. But a large tribe of passionate people need a powerful idea to unite around.

Enter branding 101. Every great brand needs a great story. "Change We Can Believe In." It was more than just a campaign slogan, it was a mission statement.

Barack Obama's biography (brand identity) provided the classic narrative of victory over adversity. A movement of Change and Hope was born and "Yes We Can" became their rallying cry.

To further solidify this position of Change, President-elect Obama just launched Change.gov. It's become abundantly clear to me, we have not only elected our first black president. This nation just elected our first President 2.0.

Future presidential hopefuls, I'm putting you all on alert. The game has changed. The bar has been more than raised, it's been reinvented. Why not sit out 2012, and start planning for 2016?

Vote Obama

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

Manic Monday: Political Dance-Off

For the 5% - 12% of you that are still undecided about which presidential candidate you're voting for tomorrow, I propose this: choose the next president based on their skills on the dance floor.

If this video is any measure, we're in for a tight race on Tuesday...

Manic Monday: McCain and Obama (Re-mixed)

If the networks really wanted to get some off the chart ratings, they would show mash-ups like this of the presidential debates. I've watched all three presidential debates as well as the VP debate.

And I can honestly say I learned TONS more about each candidate in this video's minute and a half than I ever have in the hours of debate coverage.


If you're viewing this on Facebook, click here to see the video.

John McCain is Alexander the Great, and Barack Obama has superpowers!? Why have we not heard about these key facts earlier?

Getting Out the Vote: From Xbox to Jewish Grannies

I had a post ready to go out earlier this week about a recent McCain rally in which GOP supporters were saying some pretty scary stuff. But I decided to restrain.

Instead, I thought I would take a look at two non-traditional marketing tactics Sen. Obama launched over the last week. It's no secret that the Obama Camp has ushered in a whole new era of marketing for political campaigns.

Much of that work has come in the realm of online marketing and social media which is well documented here, here, and here.

With less than three weeks to go to Election Day, the Illinois Senator has released two new tactics: one is cutting edge, and the other is a throwback to social media (pre-internet.)

Gigaom reported yesterday that Obama Ads are now showing up on billboards in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Talk about reaching the youth vote.


And on the opposite end of the generation spectrum, The Great Schlep, "aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor."

I'm not saying either of these tactics will single-handily swing the election. But they do represent more out of the box thinking from a candidate that has not only pushed the envelope of campaign marketing, he's reinvented the game.

Coming Out for Obama

Some of you may already know by now. But for those that don't, and in the spirit of National Coming Out Day, I thought it was time for me to make it official...

I, John Rogers (Registered Republican), fully support Barack Obama for President of the United States.



With less than three weeks to go before the election, it's time to get out the vote. It's time for change. It's time for renewed hope. It's time for us to make a difference.

Yes. We. Can.

Manic Monday: Time for Some Campaignin'

With the DNC's Convention kicking off tonight (and therefore the start of the "official" campaign season) I felt it appropriate to post a video about our country's other favorite pastime: politics.

This clip made its rounds a few weeks back. It's from the guys at JibJab who bought us "This Land" four years ago.

Hilarious.

Biggest Celebrity in the World

I'm sure many of you have either heard about or seen the political ad put out by the McCain Campaign last week. I have to admit, I'm confused. In the clip, the Senator from Arizona argues that Barrack Obama has been catipulted to the national stage and is the "Biggest Celebrity in the World."

Honestly, I don't know how that hurts Senator Obama. Is it such a bad thing to be known and liked by the rest of the world?



What do you think? Does this political ad by the McCain camp help or hurt Barack Obama? Or do you think it's a bit ridiculous to compare a politician to celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?


UPDATE: Paris Hilton has just released a political ad of her own. Watch at your own peril.

Dear Obama Haters

Give it up. At the risk of jinxing the guy, I'm going to go ahead and make things much easier for all parties involved. Barack Obama is going to win the DNC's nomination this summer (the smart money is saying sometime in June.) Then he will go on to win the election on Nov. 4th, 2008 and be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in January.

Oh and in case you were wondering, by my calculations he has about a 87.6% chance of winning re-election in 2012. That is assuming of course he doesn't have any major missteps in his first term in office. And there's always the outside chance that the Clintons will try to impeach him.

As for anyone that's caught up in the Clinton/Obama scandal or mildly enthusiastic about the GOP's chances this year...it's okay. No one's going to judge you for those thoughts and hopes of yours. I'm just trying to give you the heads up that its not going to work out for you this time.

My advice would be to take a look at the potential field of candidates for 2016. And watch out for the Independent Party, they will be more than fed up with the polarization of our two party system and be looking for a well spoken leader with a familiar face. Mark my words, we have not seen the last of the Ron Paul "Revolutionaries."

That said, I do hope that Barack Obama is able to back up all of his "soaring rhetoric" and actually make some (if only a small) change in politics as usual in Washington. Is there a chance he could be the next Jimmy Carter? Sure, but I'll take that over George W's third term as some are calling a McCain Presidency. (And I voted for the man, twice.)

Just Words?

Just Words? What do you think? Who owns the copyright on these words? Most people say that some of the words Barack Obama recently used belong to Martin Luther King, Jr, Thomas Jefferson, and John F. Kennedy. Others say they belong to Deval Patrick.



But who truly owns any of these ideas or words? Even before King, Jefferson, and Kennedy, there was John Locke, Booker T. Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many many others that came before them.

After the politicking subsides and the media spin beings to slow, what should we do? Is it better to act as copyright police or rather engage in the conversation and see how we can put these great ideals into action?

If you want to see more, check out the more than 1,300 videos already posted to YouTube over these war of words.