“Yes we can” Obama invokes America’s soul

There are only three words on O’Conall Street tonight, Yes We Can. I arrived back from work frozen by the Belfast night to hear Senator Barack Obama’s speech in New Hampshire last night. I don’t want to turn the blog into a very poor imitation of Primary Colours but the great Joe Klien himself on Channel 4 News said this was the greatest election of the past thirty years.

Obama is a great communicator. He is also a great advocate. My colleagues in New York have been writing lately about the way in which he is appealing to younger voters. Writing on All About Advocacy yesterday (before the vote in New Hampshire) my colleague Josh Gilbert said:

 It remains to be seen if it will last.  But, with one democratic victory under his belt in Iowa already and another upset potentially in the making in the New Hampshire primary, Barak Obama’s “it moment” in American politics is already one incredible ride.  Conventional political wisdom about advertising spend and primary voter behavior is a poor guide to understand why, especially when it comes to the young people and independents who are turning out in droves. 

No, you’ve got to throw away the old playbook (and I don’t think Mark Mellman and Michael Bloomfield quite got it right in their recent New York Times Op-Ed talking about word-of-mouth either).  This is about something new: the advocacy mojo of a very different brand of candidate.  Authentic, multi-cultural, positive, engaging, and ultimately electric, Obama not only delivers the right message about change to today’s newest voting generation.   He literally embodies it.  “It’s not something he’s doing… it’s something he’s being,” is how one commentator put it.  And, if you’ve been following our blog or research at Weber Shandwick, you know that’s when advocacy is at its strongest.  This transcends any ad spot and explains the why behind the word-of-mouth that’s at work in the Obama campaign and how it can be sustainable.

Small wonder then,  as reported by the New York Times yesterday, that fifty-seven percent of voters ages 17 to 24 said Mr. Obama was their first choice in Iowa, compared with just 14 percent for John Edwards and 10 percent for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.   Even Howard Dean’s celebrated net roots campaign only turned out 23 percent of the youth vote during the last presidential primary in the state.

Advocacy is the most powerful and trusted form of communication today, particularly for a new generation of young people who are cynical not only about traditional politics but traditional methods like advertising that try to persuade them.  When it’s core to your brand, like it is for Senator Obama, look out.  No traditional campaign or candidate may be able to touch it.  The race has already been historic.  That it will continue to be exciting and interesting is an understatement.  Stay tuned.

Josh is right, Obama, more than Clinton is rewriting the campaigning manual. That is half of what makes him a great communicator. The other half is him. They say you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Well Mr Barack Obama is a poet and in Ireland we worship great poets. If you haven’t seen it all ready click below.

Yes we can. The young Robert Kennedy invoked George Bernard Shaw’s immortal lines:  Some see things the way they are and ask, “Why?” I dream things that never were, and ask “Why not?” Obama has the same message but quotes the slave and the famine emigrant.