Fascinating comments…

Here’s my two cents and that’s exactly what they’re worth.

I agree that Obama had good marketing. He was packaged and sold just like breakfast cereal or a candy bar is to those wanting to lose weight but not give up sugar.

Chrisma in Obama I didn’t see it. All I saw was a militant black man who could barely keep his cool. Yes, the anchors kept gushing over how “cool” he was but I didn’t see it. I could tell by his body language and how tight his jaw muscles were during the debates just how difficult it was for him to keep his cool.

I think there are too many Jim Jones people out there who will jump on the bandwagon and drink the koolaide just because someone tells them it’s the thing to do. These are the same people who have the “get rich quick” mentality in the IM industry.

Still I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he won because of marketing and his savvy. I would agree with you on this IF he had won by a landslide. However, the fact is that even by out spending McCain 3 to 1, having the traditional media gush all over him, buying Hillary’s supporters — he still barely won the popular vote. It was almost 50/50.

Electoral votes has nothing to do with popular votes or what the population as a whole believes. In Missouri they’re still trying to decide who won. Many voters in states where votes were not counted yet when Obama was declared the winner aren’t too happy to realize their vote didn’t count.

If you take the time to study the maps they were showing during the election McCain was winning. There were more red than blue counties voting for him in each state.

Me, I personally don’t care. I figure one politician is as bad as the other. They’ll lie to your face and unashamedly bribe you for your vote and then do what’s in their best interest rather than yours. The gullible will always buy the “pretty glittery” object.

My point is that Obama is not a case study in successful social networking or marketing. He is in fact a case for failure. McCain ran a horrible and disorganized campaign and the media wrote him off prematurely just like they did Hillary. And yet, Obama with all of his support and money still couldn’t sell the public. He couldn’t “close the deal” with almost half the population.

At best it was a draw. Which is sad when you think about it. All that money and support against an opponent who couldn’t manage their funds or campaign, who’s own party wouldn’t support him, who had the media against him and the best Obama could do was a draw? It’s very sad.

Again, I’m talking popular vote not electoral.

This certainly makes a great example of the power of effective marketing through the net. Obama is spot on.

If I can be allowed a second comment:

I first got the feeling it was all over 5 minutes into the first debate. Obama came across as smooth, polished, “presidential”. McCain, whatever he said, came across as a stick figure. His limited motions, rather than reminding voters of what he suffered to uphold his and his country’s honor as a POW, made him LOOK stiff. His age, rather than reminding people of his experience, just made him look like the “old man”, as opposed to Obama’s “vigah”. You can see where this is going- policies didn’t matter, it was perception, and it was Kennedy vs. Nixon all over again. Since THAT election, appearance has meant far too much in the public’s perceptions of candidates, and how they vote, and meaty things such as policies and issues have meant far too little. From that debate on, McCain’s chances to win decreased significantly. In most viewer’s minds, Obama’s performance removed the issue of his inexperience, one of McCain’s strong arguments agaist Obama, from their sight

Nonetheless, had the economy not tanked until after the election, it would’ve been a far closer thing, not only in popular vote, but in electoral votes, too. Florida and Ohio probably would have stayed “blue”, and states such as Indiana never would have tipped. It wouuld’ve taken only one other big swing state to change from red to blue, such as Pennsylvania, and McCain would’ve been well over. Joe the Plumber would probably have been the October surprise that would have tipped the election, had not the economy crashed so badly. But once the economy crashed as badly as it did, McCain was a dead duck.

Gary,
Give it up. Obama was the product, true. However he was the leader of the marketing team, also. His message of change and hope for a better America was most appealing to the majority of the American people. I believe he would have won even without the economic downturn because there’s very few, if any, true Americans who wanted anything near what the Bush Administration has put out for the last 8 years. So, I welcome a President who has a message for all the people of America, not just the elistist! And, one who tells it like it is win or lose.

All very interesting, but how come GWB got 50% of the vote twice in four years? Hardly any of the things mentioned in the above comments were or are true of him.

Obama won because he is the best candidate for the position of President of the United States of America.
All the conspiracy theories and un-American statements he was suppose to have said, where fabricated. It’s called fear, fear from people who do not want to move forward and for the better.
Somehow, our wonderful Americans came through again and sensed, that in order to survive and succeed, we have to adapt to the change that is needed to meet the challenges that we will face.
Obama is just one person, it takes all of us to make this country work, we’re in good hands.
Life is organic and I hate to see us reduce something as serious as the election to just marketing, however, marketing was used and as Rich said, used smartly by the Obama campaign strategist. They got him noticed, they got people to listen and Obama delivered and was consistant with his message.

Raul

I am a Chinese . I appreciate Barack Obama Very much . I do believe he will be a good president !

Barrack Obama is a smart man, he knows that most american people use Internet and he take advantage over it by creating a song during the election time and spread it over the Youtube, myspace and may other popular site to take a sympathy and faith from the american people. A brilliant idea to become a president

I have struggled on-line for many years to present a believable image to others.
What I witnessed with the Obama victory was marketing genius.
It has now been over a year since the election, and almost a year into the new (inclusive) Presidency, and what is the outcome?
The politics-as-usual atmosphere inside the D.C. beltway is even worse than it was perceived to be before. There is more Party polarity than ever. The R’s have been excluded from the business of government (whatever that is).
Over-all, the selections each made for V.P. were irrelevant to the outcome.
Pelosi and Reed must think they died and went to Heaven.
It will take more than one person to change the politics of D.C.
But I digress. Yes, it was marketing genius, but it was also FOCUS!
One of the things that separate the IM winners from the losers is just that-focus.
Obama stayed focused during the campaign, and McCain did not.
Isn’t that what Rich teaches?