The Obama Lesson

Finally Obama won. I was as excited as anybody else; rooting for him and spending hours, mainly online, checking up on the election news, gossip and trends.

I discovered a lot of new things.

1. The Huffington Post – the blog-stop of preference of the liberals. Great articles and even funnier and acerbic comments.

1. The Campaign – how are campaigns run? This question was superbly demonstrated by the Obama camp. I am not even in America, so have missed out on 95% of the audio and visual ammunition that was deployed by both the camps. But some things were as clear as day. Obama knew what his message was. McCain didn’t. Obama was all strategy whereas McCain was only tactics. Obama was positive and McCain relied too heavily on the negative. Obama spoke to all of America whereas McCain spoke only to his constituency. This campaign should be the Bible for all future campaigns (with the same set of dynamics of course)

1. New Media – the internet probably has never played such a huge role in any political campaign before. Each and every move of both the campaigns was stripped in minutes – TV seemed snail mail. Fact checking became a national obsession and the constant negatives and lies from the McCain camp were revealed to all in a matter of minutes – must have cost a lot of votes for the republicans.

1. Democracy via Funding – of the people, by the people, for the people. The Obama camp’s use of new media to increase awareness and to raise funds. The small contributions from the millions that enabled Obama to take the battle right into the red states. People came forward, gave money to the person they believed should be the man for the job and eventually hope to reap the benefits. Grass root mobilization at its finest.

1. Brand – who or what is Brand Obama? Is it limited to the American shores? I think it goes a bit beyond. Hope, change, a break from the past…the keywords of his campaign are relevant in many a place around the world – especially India. How he performs from the 21^st or January 2009 will make, unmake or enhance what has been an awe – inspiring performance – of intellectual rigour, grace under pressure and vision.

1. McCain / Palin – Beavis and Butthead would have been better in the White House and Palin would have put the RSS to shame.

1. Tina Fey – I want all her performances. Obama should thank Ms Fey’s impersonations which brought into relief Palin’s ignorance and made many a fence sitter decide where the vote should or shouldn’t go.

1. Sub Prime / Economy – finally understood what the sub – prime crisis was. How it paved the way for the collapse of banks and the death of venture capitalism. The pitfalls of free – market economy and unregulated capitalism. Is India listening?