Political Campaigns
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was arguably one of the best political campaigns in history. Our country was involved in two wars and we were facing the biggest recession since the great depression. Still, his political campaign stayed focused and continued promoting his message while the opposing political campaign choose to use personal attacks instead of debating policy and current events. Political campaigns often choose to take the negative route by trying to destroy the opposing candidate’s image. It is unfortunate that these tactics often work.
• Running a political campaign is not an easy task. Barack Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod did a phenomenal job at running the campaign and now serves as the senior advisor to President Obama. His hard work and intelligence helped Barack Obama become a senator and now President of the United States. He was an advocate for honesty and sticky to the facts which Barack Obama also believed. This could be why many of the republican attacks on the current administration seem to go unnoticed by the President and his cabinet.
• The 2008 Presidential race involved two political campaigns that seemed to be polar opposites. The democratic nominee Barack Obama often seemed to be calm, cool and collect most of the time which helped him win over many independent voters who were not interested in partisan bickering. The republican nominee John McCain was usually trying to attack Obama personally instead of talking about what was wrong with the country. This had him on the defense the majority of the time because many Americans were unsure of what he stood for. Each political campaign has a choice, either promote the candidate’s proposed policy and explain why they are the best candidate for the job or resort to political theater with name calling and untruthful accusations. Barack Obama’s political team chose to stick to the former. While the McCain campaign was trying to convince the public he surrounded himself with racists, anarchists and terrorists, Obama chose to talk about the economy and how his administration will fix it. When McCain attempted to make Obama look weak by saying he didn’t have any experience, Obama told the American citizens how he will put them back to work and how he will reform our country’s health care system. If you are talking about the other candidate, you are not talking about our country’s issues. Most voters want to know why you are the best candidate and they do not care what you think about your opponent’s personal life. Barack Obama knew this from the start of his political campaign in February of 2007. John McCain’s campaign never really figured that out until it was too late.
Regardless of who you voted for in November of 2008, you cannot deny the success of Barack Obama’s campaign. It ran smoothly for the majority of the time and whenever there were any bumps in the road, the campaign stayed focused and got back on track and on the offense as quickly as possible. All future political campaigns can learn from Obama’s. His campaign will most likely be an ideal model for all presidential campaigns. Political campaigns are a long grueling process and showcase the best and the worst in every candidate involved with one.