Gallup recently released a poll showing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the two most admired people in the world.
Three other national polls have put Obama's approval rating at 49 percent, an increase of 7 to 10 percent over a few months ago when his rating was in the 30s.
So as the year ends and we move into 2012, I thought I'd pose the question to myself many are going to be asking in the coming year:
How do I feel about Barack Obama?
Without further ado ...
How do I feel about Barack Obama?
He seems like a good guy. Wait ... why are we even asking this question?
Why aren't we discussing the various approaches for getting our country back on track and their merits?
Why does the media care so much about how we "feel" about Obama? Or any politician for that matter?
Look at the Republican primary. Why are we discussing:
You see how this plays out. It's a war of competing brands with a smattering of what the Republican candidates would actually do to help our country and economy.
If you look at what they'd actually do, all of them support further deregulation and some form of "trickle down" theory featuring more tax cuts for the wealthy.
If elected, we'd likely see:
- Attempts to privatize Medicare and/or Social Security
- Repeal of the Affordable Care Act
- Attacks on government worker salaries and pensions similar to those which happened in Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states
- Repeal of even the mildest Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulations
- Another war to distract us from the above
How is this any different than the conservative ideas which lead to our current situation?
It sure looks like more of the same to me: deregulation and supply-side economics and distractions so we don't notice the selling of our country to the monied interests.
Is this why they're spending so little time talking about ideas? Is this why they're focusing on personalities and brands?
When it comes to Obama, what we're likely to hear in 2012 is more of the same:
In other words, Obama bad, Obama bad, Obama bad.
Why?
Because political consultants know that we vote largely on our "feelings".
Get ready for it. We've seen the run-up over the past 3 years, but we're likely to hear more shortly after the Republican primaries.
Over and over. Ad nauseum.
The (M)Ad Men know that we tend to vote our feelings and conservatives and the Super PACs like American Crossroads have a huge ad spend. They also believe they have a message machine which can sell even the worst ideas by making it personal.
So how do I feel about Barack Obama?
1) While I wish he'd of accomplished more during his first term, we've still seen the end of the War in Iraq, terrorism efforts which actually focused on terrorists (instead of invading other countries), the glimmer of a Consumer Protection Bureau, mild Wall Street reform, and health care for many who didn't have it.
So I'll likely vote for him again. Especially if the alternative is a return to our "trickle down" past.
2) But second and more importantly, focusing solely on Obama (or any other candidate) is the wrong question. We're going to need more than Obama.
This is perhaps the biggest takeaway from Occupy Wall Street.
We're going to need to persuade people.
Conservatives have a well-oiled influence machine which they've built over the last thirty years. It consists of pundits, media organizations, think tanks, religious organizations, business schools and tested ad campaigns.
We elect candidates. Conservatives win minds.
Do I believe we have to have a similar structure? Not necessarily. Occupy Wall Street showed us that we can win differently. But we have to continue to move the fight towards persuasion.
Right now, we're playing a defensive game, trying to hold on to the institutions and beliefs which have come under assault. We win battles like beating Issue 2 in Ohio or setting back Scott Walker's agenda in Wisconsin.
While the short-term fights are important, I believe to win long term we need to convince people that we simply have a better vision for America. A vision in which every American matters.
I believe we have this vision.
For example, when it comes to our economy, in order for markets to function properly, we need a balance between government and business. Not to "drown government in a bathtub".
We have the Krugman's, the Stiglitz's, the Akerlof's, the Warren's, and the Shiller's.
We simply need to craft their ideas into "bumper sticker" format and teach others using stories, examples, anecdotes, and their existing influence.
What we may not have are the hundreds of millions in business backing. What we do have are numbers and, given the current crop of conservative ideas, a huge opportunity.
The opportunity is to take the fight from the personal (Obama or any other individual such as Elizabeth Warren) to a vision which would last long beyond any election.
Don't believe me, though. From The Economist on the Republican primary:
Rather than answering the call for a credible right-of-centre, pro-business party to provide independents, including this newspaper, with a choice in November, it is saddling its candidate with a set of ideas that are cranky, extreme and backward-looking.
This article does a fantastic job of outlining the litany of extreme ideas Republican candidates must believe in order to win primaries. Keep in mind this is coming from a publication that claims to find the most common ground on the economy with Republicans.
This is a huge opportunity.
So how do I feel about Obama?
I think he's a great guy. I feel he may even win the 2012 election. But to win long term, we're going to have to move from electing Democrats to persuading people of the value of our ideas.
We're going to have to get past our belief that the truth sells itself and start selling.