Topic: Leaders
Article: For Obama, going positive may be more difficult this time
Source: NYtimes.com
Author: Richard W. Stevenson
Published on April 13, 2012
Length: 3 pages
Main Ideas:
Since he is almost certain that he will be campaigning against Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, Obama has started working on a strategy. Obama plans to portray Romney as a wealthy elitist whose policies are likely to lead to Social Darwinism. However, most successful campaigns are almost always built on positive foundations, such as Obama's hope and change plan from 2008. This year, Obama wants to use the themes of fairness and security in his campaign, but even that is risky because his policies have not cone over well with the American public for a long time. Other elements of Obama's strategy include countering Conservative criticism and avoiding talking about the things he failed to do during his term in the White house. Both Obama and Romney have difficult campaigns ahead of them, and Obama's new strategies could potentially help him be reelected.
Conclusions:
Campaigning has always been about how a candidate's words can convince people to vote for them, so it will be fascinating how Obama and Romney try to portray themselves. Throughout the campaign, Obama and Romney will not only be trying to make themselves look good, but each other look bad. However, most people will be disgusted if one of the candidates outright insults the other, so Obama and Romney will have to be subtle if they want to win the election. Obama has even more of a challenge than Romney because he has to defend himself from Romney and at the same time, try to paint his time in the White house so far in a more positive light.
Obama will have a tough time campaigning against Romney because he has to paint his time in the White House as positive, while making himself look better than the other candidate. He will have a hard time portraying his tenure as president as worthwhile because a large amount of Americans have not agreed with a few of his policies, such as raising taxes to pay down the deficit. In order to level the playing field, he will portray Romney as a rich elitist whose ideas will lead to social Darwinism. In addition, he will also use the ideas of fairness and security to aid his campaign. Regardless, both Obama and Romney have difficult campaigns ahead of them.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama will be campaigning against the GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Obama is planning to base his campaign upon Mitt Romney's views on creating a wider separation between the wealth classes. Unfortunately, most political campaigns that were incredibly successful (including Obama's own) were based upon not defaming his opponent. Fortunately for the current President, statistically presidents have a better chance of being re-elected compared to losing to the opposing party candidate.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama will most likely be running against Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. Obama has an advantage because he is already in office and the people can choose to vote for him because they like his policies. However, this works the other way around too, because if people don't like his policies they will not re-elect him to be president for another four years. Obama has to figure out how to portray his opponent has less desirable or less suited to office than himself, and he has chosen to do this by a *wealthy elitist* whose policies will eventually lead to Social Darwinism. It is critical to portray the opponent has someone wealthy because the image of the "common man" gains sympathy among voters. However, Obama has to be careful about avoiding topics on things that he has so far failed to achieve while in office, as well as policies that have not gone well with the American public (health insurance, etc). I'm interested to see who will win this election, as it is a tough campaign for both candidates.
ReplyDelete