Marketing the Presidency: Obama - Stewart

Hey Barry:

Caught your talk on the Daily Show.

Here's a link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/10/about-late-last-night-jon-stewart-presses-president-obama-on-the-daily-show-1.html

Overall great job on the show. And, overall great job on the Presidency - I agree with your assessment on the actions you have taken so far.

But, the discussion last night brings up a question: Why is the public perception of the accomplishments behind the reality?

The answer last night seemes to be that folks have expectations that the actions will happen in 18 months. That is why there is a drop in your popularity and approval.

That's OK Barry, as far as it goes, but I just don't think that's good enough.

I think part of your job is to manage expectations. And it seems that you have done a mediocre to poor job at that.

A related example can be found in marketing cars. In the 1980's people had low expectations of a car, so the poor 'quality' cars produced then matched the expectations and sold reasonably well.

Today, car buyers have much higher expectations when they buy a car. If a car does not have all the features buyers expect today, they judge it as a poor 'quality' car, although it may be ten times better than a car from 30 years ago.

The market's expectations of car 'quality' have moved a lot.

It is similar to people's expectations of a 'quality' Presidency. Those expectations have moved a lot since 2008. And that is due in large part to you, Barry Obama: you have raised people's expectations of what it means to be a 'quality' President.

The reason that I place quotation marks around the word 'quality' is that I believe that 'quality' is an elusive concept. The best way to measure 'quality' IMHO is to measure what are the expectations about the subject and to compare how the product - or the Presidency - compares to the expectations.

If I am correct in my belief that your raising expectations of your Presidency has contributed to the current lower approval ratings, then there are at least two possible approaches you might take.

One approach would be to lower expectations. This is what Bush was so good at. He created the expectation that he was a complete klutz; nobody noticed what he was doing because they were all marveling at the idea that he actually was able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

I think this would be a mistake.

Another approach would be to sell the positives more aggressively while noting the difficulties you had to overcome to achieve each positive.

For example, you might say this: 'My administration has successfully overcome fierce Republican resistance to increased government regulation and has created and passed financial reform that is really helping people. As only one example, today we are looking carefully at each bank's home mortgage foreclosure process to ensure that each bank follows the new regulations. This will have the effect of preventing many unfair and/or illegal foreclosures. It will also help prevent a second, more severe recession - the Double Dip that many of you are concerned about. And make no mistake, if we did not have the new legislation, we would have a double dip recession.'

If this approach makes sense, then it seems likely that your administration will need some more aggressive Public Relations people who specialize in marketing your Presidency.

One of the reasons that the financial regulation legislation passed is that you and your staff made it a priority, as compared to some other legislation which you did not make a priority and which did not do as well as a result.

Bottom line is this Barry - you gotta sell yourself harder. And, it won't hurt to get some professionsl PR folks on the team - market your Presidency the same way General Motors sells Cadillacs or Chevys.

We need you to do that, Barry.

Your pal,

The Rent Is Too Damn High

Hey Barry:

Jimmy McMillan wants to be Governor of New York.

He calls his party: The Rent Is Too Damn High Party

Website: http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/

Why, because The Rent Is Too Damn High.

If I lived in New York, he'd have my vote.

Here's his message: Too many homeless vets and families - somthing is wrong in our country.

He is fighting the good fight.

Your pal,

Plutocrats March On

Hey Barry:

In case you don't know, the secret billionaires who are helping Rove are having an impact in the California Senate race.

Read it here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/26/MNLI1G1P3G.DTL&type=politics


Sitting Senator Barbara Boxer is being hurt by negative ads funded by secret, outside groups. If she loses, the Senate will gain another RICH ex-CEO - Carly Fiorina.

The plutocrats march on.

Your pal,

No Insurance - Too Bad Sucka

Hey Barry:

Now I don't know if your health plan will fix things like this or not. I surely hope so.

Friend of ours owns a small store selling imported specialty items after a career in retail in her home country. She has no health insurance.

Last week she felt very ill and went to the nearest hospital. Turns out she had acute appendicitus and nearly died.

A surgeon performed the operation.

The hospital discharged her after two hours in the operating room and no recovery time and is now suing her for $60,000.

Makes ya wanna puke.

Your pal,

Beaner and the Reps: Not Pretty

Hey Barry:

I have been thinking about Beaner and the Reps.

[First off, I don't mean to insult any folks of Hispanic heritage - the word is just too good a play on 'Boehner' to pass.]

My thinking is not pretty, Barry.

I don't know if you'll like it - after all you are a bi-partisan soul if ever there was one.

But Barry, the Reps is simply bad for the country. And, you are the President of all the United States and your job is to watch out for all of us.

I have been trying real hard to understand where they are coming from. And you know that is NOT an easy job Barry. That is something you know real well.

So anyway, here's what I come up with: the Reps want to kiss up to the billionaires.

God knows why, Barry, kissin up won't do them no good. No good at all. Never does.

If you kiss up to a billionaire, you won't get anything except a dirty mouth.

You will NOT get RICH.

First rule of being a billionaire - nobody gets RICH except a billionaire.

OK Barry, if you're squeamish, better pass up the rest of this right now. Y'all warned......



Let's say you are tongue rimming a billionaire because you think you will get RICH.

Think on it cousin: the best you will get is that the SOB does not let a big fart.

That's the best you can do.

So, I gotta ask Beaner: what y'all doin anyway? Yo is sellin out our country for a chance to kiss some billionaire's ass.

It just does not make any sense Barry.

No sense at all.

Let's move along to the elections.

And, let's suppose there is a whole bunch of folks who think that kissin up to the billionaires is a good thing for some ridiculus reason.

That will mean that you, Barry Obama, will have a Rep majority in one house or the other.

So Barry - what y'all gotta do is to stop them Reps from destroying the progress you have made. You have done some good things and now you will need to protect them.

It's not sexy Barry, it's politics down and dirty. But that's the hand you got Barry.

Please play it well.

Your pal,

Let's Help RICH Create Jobs!

Hey Barry:

The RICH keep on sayin they'll create some jobs real soon now and that's why they should stay RICH.

You and I know thas jes a crock.

But, maybe we can help them out a little.

After all, they will feel so much better when they have really created some jobs instead of just talking about it.

Here's some history on how we can do that: when we look back at the 1950's we see that there were a lot of infrastructure jobs around - we were building roads and schools and bridges and airports like there was no tomorrow.

OK, that was a long time ago, but how did we get the money back then?

Simple answer - we put a 90% tax on high incomes and a 70% tax on estates. With that money we created the infrastructure that we still use today - except it's a little worn round the edges and needs some patching.

That's how the RICH can help create jobs and make our country better - we will tax them to get the money to pay for what we need.

And, we can help the Federal deficit as well - which is running about a trillion a year: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/10/24/national/w051643D79.DTL

After all, it only takes a taxing a few of the RICH to help balance the budget.

And, Barry, if the RICH don't like it, they can take their money and move to someplace where they will be welcome like Mexico or Somalia. [I don't mean any disrepect to those countries, but I'm guessing that RICH folks' money and sense of entitlement might actually help out there.]

We surely will NOT miss them here. Please encourage them to leave Barry. It's like Dear Abby says: 'It's time for a divorce when you'll be better off without them than you are with them.'

Your pal,