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Barack
Obama
The Competitive Advantage of Great Communication
My maternal grandmother, “Nana,” as we all called her, died in 2005,
at the age of 97. If she were alive today, she simply would not believe what occurred
on election night, November 4, 2008. Nana grew up in a world where the notion of
an African-American in the Oval Office was simply preposterous. I never thought Nana
would play a starring role in The Beacon or In the Spotlight, but
she is the perfect leading lady to capture the magnitude of November 4.
As a nation, we have come a long way in a short period of time, and the scope of
Nana’s 97 years does not capture the rapidity of the progress. Think about
the scope of Barack Obama’s lifetime. When he was born, in 1961, there were
many states, and not just in the South, that still enforced segregation laws, still
banned mixed-race marriages (like his parents’), and restricted voting rights
based on race. Indeed, this election was proof that America has made great strides,
remaining the only true meritocracy on earth. If you have the stuff to lead, to produce,
and to make something of yourself, you can do it here, regardless of where you come
from, what your name is, or what you look like. If it isn’t already obvious
to you, let me make it so… I am proud of this reality.
But despite the obvious racial historical aspects of this campaign, what really
drove President-elect Obama’s success was his skill as a communicator. Everyone
I have spoken with, both leading up to and since Election Day, has commented on how
much of an impact his ability to communicate and persuade had on their vote. Verbal
communication was a significant competitive advantage for him, much like it
was for Ronald Reagan and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
More specifically, there were three things worth noting briefly about his communication
skills. First, he speaks to the big issues, and he’s not afraid to tackle those
issues. I have yet to hear him get bogged down in the minute details on a topic.
He is able to step back and communicate the big picture to his audience. Second,
he has an innate ability to make you feel like he is speaking to you, no
matter how large the crowd. And third (and this is really a subset of the previous
point), he almost never speaks in the first person singular “I.” He almost
always speaks in the first person plural “we.” This speech pattern was
the topic of an entire issue of The Beacon (March
2008),
but it is worth a quick mention again here.
Obama has total mastery of the spoken word – the cadence, the crystal clear
articulation, the strategic pause... he has the full arsenal. And he will need it.
Our next President will have his challenges. He inherits a world teetering on the
brink in many ways. His lack of executive experience may haunt him, and all of us.
Remember… it was just four short years ago that he was a first-time US Senator,
and there were some who thought at the time that he was too inexperienced for that job.
He does not enter with any significant mandate. Obama won 52% of the vote – a
nice number, to be sure, but this was no Reagan or Roosevelt landslide. Despite an
unpopular President, an unpopular war, and the worst financial crisis in 70 years,
46% of the country still voted for the Republican candidate. I remind you of these
statistics to simply point out that President-elect Obama has a lot of work ahead
of him. He will need every ounce of those vaunted communication skills if he is to
lead us to a better place.
He mastered the art of the campaign, but can he master the art of governance? Remember… politicians
campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose. He has the poetry mastered. Now comes
the prose.
Dean M. Brenner
November 21, 2008
Wallingford, CT
 Beacon Issue -
December 2008
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