With the primary season finally winding down, it’s about time for the campaign to begin (oy!). When I excitedly told my father that Barack Obama was running for president last February, he distinctly asked, "Obama Bama?" But fifteen months is a long time, and Barack Obama is now a household name in this country. The question is: do average Americans know anything about him? Like what he stands for and junk?
Why is it that Obama’s numbers climb in a given state when he spends more time there? Well duh, he spends millions of dollars on commercials. But when Hillary told him "Enough with the speeches and the big rallies," she didn’t say anything about commercials. Don’t get me wrong, some of his ads have been pretty stellar, but political commercials are political commercials for the most part (with one notable exception... more on that later).
Obama’s accomplished something extraordinary in this campaign; he’s won the nomination over one of the most recognizable people in the last 50 years in American politics. I don’t believe you pull something like that with ads. So there’s something about those "big rallies," something that Obama does better than anyone I’ve ever seen.
I call it the "Lightbulb Moment," that moment where he connects with every single person in the room in a very visceral way.
When I watch him give a speech, or I see footage from a campaign rally, I’m almost never looking at Obama. His stump speech hasn’t changed very much so there’s no point in my hanging on every word. Instead, I’m watching the audience around him, looking to see how they respond, and it’s quite a thrill when I see a dozen heads start nodding at the same exact time. That means something he said just resonated, and if it’s resonating with everyone at once, then those words were probably intended to have precisely that effect.
Why is this a big deal? Doesn’t every politician bounce things off advisers and focus groups to see how they play? Well sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re good at executing it. I’ve been to a Clinton rally and it sucked; people who were jumping up and down when she took the stage were napping by the end of her lecture. That’s what it was: a lecture, as if she were reading a policy paper. I’m not sure this really hurt her, because she never needed to introduce herself to voters the way Obama did.
I’ve also been to a couple of Obama rallies. He has this rare ability to make you feel like you and he are the only people in the room; rather than talking to the crowd, he talks to each individual, anticipating their questions and addressing their concerns. There are always people who are hearing Obama detail his policies and positions for the first time; maybe they’ve heard soundbites on the news and had friends fill in the details, but they show up to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Invariably, they are impressed. You’ll see them smile, or their eyes widen at the sound of something they’ve been wanting to hear from a politician. THAT’S why there’s a direct relationship between his showing in each state and how much time he spent there. Watch this clip. Watch their faces. Tell me if you think any of these people left that hall wondering about his experience/toughness:
Now this is the Obama commercial I alluded to earlier, the one that transcends the usual template for a presidential ad. Maybe you remember it: this is Obama’s response to Clinton’s pandering on the gas tax holiday; it aired in North Carolina and Indiana. To call this commercial masterful would be an understatement... it might be the greatest 60 second spot in modern political history. You guys can comment on all the devices he uses here, but I want you to pay special attention to the audience. Look at the people behind Obama, but pay special attention when the camera pans away from him. The people that are shown, are shown for a reason: they’re displaying the reactions that the Obama campaign desires for certain moments in Obama’s speech:
Her pander would’ve gotten much more traction if he didn’t put this out immediately. But he did, and it makes some sophisticated points in a way that’s accessible to all voters, no matter how engaged or low-information they might be. Most importantly, by showing people reacting positively to Obama’s message, the ad leads an undecided voter to say, "Well I’m not sure about Obama, but are all these people wrong too?"
This bodes extremely well for the general election, kids. It’s not an accident that Obama’s teflon: he sticks to his guns and he knows how to reach people. And once he reaches them, he does so in such a deeply personal way that there’s almost no chance of losing them.