By Timran from Eyes on Obama:
The past few weeks have belonged to McCain, largely because he has been on the attack. Obama has been stuck in a reactive stance. The merits of McCain's attacks are irrelevant – if he is allowed to define the terms of the election, he will win.
The past few weeks have belonged to McCain, largely because he has been on the attack. Obama has been stuck in a reactive stance. The merits of McCain's attacks are irrelevant – if he is allowed to define the terms of the election, he will win.
One subtle way that McCain is defining the election is through the chatter about Obama's VP selection. There is a large group of Dems that want Obama to select a VP that will somehow shore up his perceived deficiencies in foreign policy and governing. It doesn't seem to matter that the Democratic voting public rejected this argument in the primaries. The poster child for this line of reasoning is Joe Biden. To be fair, Sen. Biden is smart on foreign policy, speaks well, and would probably relish the role of attack dog. But he is as much Mr. Washington as John McCain is. Selecting Biden would significantly affect the "change" message.
Instead, Obama should select someone who helps reinforce his brand. That would imply Governors Tim Kaine and Kathleen Sebelius or Gen. Wesley Clark. We ran a Veepstakes contest here at Eyes On Obama, which was comfortably won by Gov. Sebelius with over 77,000 votes cast. It is clearly the estimation of the Eyes On Obama community that Sebelius is the best choice, and it is curious to us that she gets so little mention from the chattering class. The other data point that can be gleaned from the vote is that change beats out experience. Every single one of our top 5 contenders was a change candidate.
There's plenty of historical support for choosing a running mate that reinforces brand as opposed to someone with complementary traits. Dick Cheney was even further to the right than George W. Bush. Al Gore was a young southerner selected for the VP spot in another "change" year. That worked out pretty well for Bill Clinton. Complementary picks like Lieberman, Edwards, and Quayle muddied the message and ended up pleasing no one.
Don't believe me? Obama should take a tip from Apple marketing guru Guy Kawasaki:
It's hard enough to create and communicate one branding message; however, many companies try to establish more than one because they are afraid of being niched and want the "entire" market. "Our computer is for Fortune 500 companies. And, oh yes, it's also for consumers to use a home." Face it, Volvo can't equal safety and sexiness, and Toyota can't equal economical and lexuriousness (sic). You can pick one message, see if it works, and then try another. But you can't try several at once.
So here's to hoping that on Wed. August 27th, Bill Clinton introduces Kathleen Sebelius as the VP. She is qualified, having served two terms as Gov. of Kansas, and is change personified, just like Obama. Instead of falling for those "too much change" arguments that people use against a black man / woman ticket, the Obama campaign should embrace the message that brought them this far.
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