Ss. Cyril and Methodius University

Iustinianus Primus Faculty of Law

Presidential Campaign

Nada Stojanova

Skopje 2011

Introduction

When it comes to winning the presidential elections, one party has to have the

right candidate for the position, whom the public will love and relate with. The

candidate must promote himself, his political stands and values, in order to connect

with the general public, his voters; hence the political campaign. The political campaign

is the necessary weapon that every political candidate must have when he runs for

some elections. The way one candidate presents himself through his campaign, is crucial

for winning more votes. In US, the most important are the presidential elections,

therefore a good presidential campaign is the most valuable asset that one candidate

can have on his side. The way one’s candidate campaign is conducted will state the

outcome of the elections.

U.S. Presidential Campaigns

Developing a political campaign is never an easy task. As we’ve stated before, the

way the political campaign will be conducted will state the outcome of the elections. Of

course, in a real political world, the competition between the parties is huge, and both

parties run very active, aggressive presidential campaigns.1 Basically, the campaigns in

the US are conducted in the same way: the parties run television and radio

advertisements; conduct a direct mail campaign; organize get-out-the-vote efforts

(GOTV) in important states; show up for the debates; travel around the country to

motivate and mobilize local party activist; and hold a national convention.2 But of

course nothing is just so simple. Even if the campaign managers do all those things, still

that will not be a guarantee for a winning. Candidates and their campaign managers

1 J.J. Coleman, K.M. Goldstein, W.G. Howell, “Understanding American Politics and Government”, Longman,2008, p. 3112 J.J. Coleman, K.M. Goldstein, W.G. Howell, “Understanding American Politics and Government”, Longman,2008, p. 310

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know that to win a presidential election they must successfully achieve as many as

possible of the following objectives:

achieve high turnout among their own party’s identifiers,

win a large share of the vote from their own party’s identifiers,

encourage some of the other candidate’s partisans to ‘defect’

reduce turnout among the other candidate’s identifiers, and

win independents

A winning campaign equation based on these objectives would look something like this:

Turnout + Loyalty + Defection + Persuasion = Victory3

One of the most important things in one political campaign is the development of the

messages and slogans. When constructed properly these messages can really reach to

the people, and make one unforgettable slogan under which will be remembered the

whole campaign. These messages may generate enthusiasm among partisans, inspiring

them to vote; and may demoralize the other party’s voters, discouraging them to vote.4

There were many inspiring messages in the previous presidential campaigns, which are

quite interesting:

“A time for greatness” or “We can do better” -1960 U.S. presidential campaign theme of

John F. Kennedy

“Don’t swap horses in midstream” -1846 U.S presidential campaign slogan of Abraham

Lincoln

“For people, for a change” -1992 U.S presidential campaign slogan of Bill Clinton5

By using surveys and focus groups, information gathered from research on their

opponents and the positions of their own candidate, campaigns identify the most

persuasive arguments for their side and against their opponent, and the most

compelling language with which to couch their message.6

3 J.J. Coleman, K.M. Goldstein, W.G. Howell, “Understanding American Politics and Government”, Longman,2008, p. 3114 J.J. Coleman, K.M. Goldstein, W.G. Howell, “Understanding American Politics and Government”, Longman,2008, p. 3125 Web page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._presidential_campaign_slogans6 J.J. Coleman, K.M. Goldstein, W.G. Howell, “Understanding American Politics and Government”, Longman,2008, p. 312

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All these campaigns take time and commitment, as from the candidate, as from

the staff, but also they cost a lot. Every next election year cumulates more and more

money for advertisement and promoting the political candidates. Hundreds of millions

are spend on every election campaign, and still all those money are not enough to

secure the win for one candidate, if the campaign is not conducted properly, and if the

public can’t relate to candidate.

2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign

The Obama Brand

One of the most interesting elections campaign was the campaign of Barack

Obama in the 2008 U.S presidential elections. This campaign was very interesting

because it offered something new to the American people; it brought them hope, the

idea of change, and the opportunity of actually feeling like they are part of something.

When Obama announced his intention to run for President in February 2007, there was

little belief that he could actually win even the Democratic nomination.  He first had to

beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic ticket, which at the time was viewed as a nearly

impossible task. Obama quickly established a consistent campaign slogan – “Change We

Can Believe In” (later slightly altered to “Change We Need”).  This consistent brand

message throughout the entire campaign provided both a rallying point for his

consumers and an effective counter to his entrenched opponents who argued that he

did not have enough experience.   It also provided the campaign with a brand “mission”

that appealed to their consumers, in sharp contrast to other candidates who changed

their mantra with every speech.7 Obama and his team realized that they can use the

benefits of the new technology in order to gather more voters, and to establish a

constant and fast correspondence with their voters. They used the internet to fundraise

more money for their campaign, to post videos of Obama in YouTube spreading the

message of his campaign, in order to gather more and more voters. One of the most

significant benefits of this kind of campaigning was the opportunity to quickly respond

and control the critics and negative publicity, whenever it was necessary.

7 Web page http://www.mutopo.com/2009/01/20/how-obama%E2%80%99s-presidential-campaign-can-change-the-marketing-of-products/

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Obama succeeded in building a huge brand out of his name, and he was

consistent in constantly improving and updating his campaign, until he won the

elections.

Conclusion

By far, we’ve realized that conducting a political campaign is not an easy task.

You’ll have to constantly gather and update information about your opponent, you’ll

have to gather more and more money, and you’ll have to be quite inventive so you’ll

show something new to the voters, in order to gain their votes. But when it comes to

conducting a presidential campaign, things get even more difficult. It’s always more

difficult to persuade the voters to vote for one person, instead of one party. You’ll have

to show to the public that your candidate is worthy of their votes, that he posses

individual values and abilities on which the voters can relate with, and to persuade the

public that your candidate is right man to whom they should give their vote to. From the

example of Obama campaign we can clearly state that creativity is always a good thing

to implement in one campaign, and that openness and constant correspondence with

the general public can only gather points for one candidate, because in that way you

show the voters that you care for them, that you want to earn their votes and implement

the politic that is needed in order to protect their social and economical wellbeing.

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