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...

A Note On Conservative Christian Republicans

A few nights ago I stumbled upon a Facebook note from my friend Rachel.

It's addressed to "Conservative Christian Republicans" (but specifically one's that blur the line between faith and politics.)


If you have a few minutes and want to read something that will cause you to rethink a few things, by all means click here.

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.)