With its emphasis on star power, the Obama campaign from Day One emphasized the candidate's perfectly cut presidential presence.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Barack Obama has brought glamour back to American politics - not the faux glamour-by-association of campaigning with movie stars or sailing with the Kennedys, but the real thing. The candidate himself is glamorous. Audiences project onto him the personal qualities and political positions they want in a president.
Republicans are completely befuddled by Obama's 'star power' and don't seem to have a clear or effective strategy to compete.
After Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, I was heartened to see him issue an Open Government Initiative on his first full day in office.
As a candidate, Obama projected himself as a new Reagan, above narrow party politics. He wanted to please all but has ended up annoying many.
What made me decide to run was the dire state of the economy and the non-leadership of President Obama. At that point in time, my campaign put a mustache on Obama as part of the national campaign drive.
Obama ran a hard-edged and negative campaign against Romney, hoping to convince recession-weary voters that his rival was unworthy of the job.
Obama's pop-cultural focus may seem demeaning to the office of the presidency. It may be mockable. But it is also tremendously effective.
Given the daunting challenges that we face, it's important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.
Obama supporters pretended that his 2008 campaign was some sort of populist uprising even as Wall Street overwhelmingly supported his candidacy.
In 2008 all the stars aligned perfectly for Obama's 6-point victory over John McCain. He was an inexperienced, untested neophyte, and successfully convinced enough voters to paint their own version of what hope-and-change was all about on the blank canvas he provided.