Get out the vote now: Obama vs. McCain
By Marko Rakar
Monday, November 3, 2008

During recent US elections I had opportunity to witness American election process first hand thanks to nice people from Springtime. Our group was based in Florida, and we had a chance to see very last Florida rally by Republican presidential candidate John McCain in Miami, and just 10 hours later (and few hundred miles north) Barack Obama election rally in Jacksonville – both happened on November 2nd, just hours before voting started. What struck me, was a high and distinctive contrast between two rallies. McCain rally happened in the University of Miami in front of approximately 5.000 people (the venue was full, but not crowded) and the meeting itself happened in late night (actually, McCain showed up at about 0:30 in the morning).

Before McCain, we have seen two Spanish singing bands, and most of the communication from the stage to the people was in Spanish language, which was somewhat odd and at times it looked like we stumbled upon a wrong place. Energy emanating from the crowd was strong, and tension was slowly heightened during the evening until McCain showed up. At that point you were able to pinpoint first major differences between two rallies. When McCain showed up, all the lights in the hall were turned off, except for spotlights centered on McCain. He entered from backstage and used walkway which separated him from the crowd. His speech lasted for about twenty minutes and while it was delivered as a speech, you could also say that it was a series of “one liners” – sentences which have their meaning by themselves, but you could line them up in any order and nothing would be missed or out of place. McCain spent his time focused and talking about issues (war, failing economy, health, international relationships). Most of his sentences started with “I”. There was very little emotions transmitted from the speech, a few badly placed jokes on the account of “Joe the plumber” (or, as he said to Spanish speaking crowd “el petito plumbero”). Crowd on the other hand interrupted McCain’s speech chanting “USA, USA” or “McCain, McCain”. During the campaign McCain strongly leaned to latino voters playing the cards of Venezuela, Columbia and Cuba (you could hear or read “Cuba libre” slogans from the crowd), and he differentiated himself from Obama who told at one point that he is willing to talk to any leader – and this is something which crowd in Miami did not accept. In one of FOX news features during the last week of campaign, it was claimed that messages served to latino population in US were quite different from the messages delivered to the rest of US voters (one of the reasons is the fact that latino voters were addressed in Spanish language), and messages are quite different since they deal with questions of immigration (both legal and illegal) which are issues quite important to Miami latino public, as well as to all immigrants specially those coming from Cuba. This particular issue is quite interesting by itself, since it is questionable how can you create more progress fifty years after “Cuba liberation” – by keeping sanctions toward Cuba which means keeping them in isolation and within closed box, or by opening to them and free flow of people, goods and more importantly – ideas. Some ten hours later (most of them spent uncomfortably trying to sleep in a car) we have arrived to Jacksonville all the way up north in Florida. Obama held a rally in Jacksonville arena in front of approximately 8.000 people (Jacksonville venue was significantly larger then one in Miami and while crowd in the picture seems smaller, it actually outnumbers McCain crowd in Miami).

Obama rally started with a prayer (quite impressive prayer connecting Obama and a gathered crowd), followed by US anthem and Pledge of Allegiance (most likely, same thing happened on McCain rally but before we arrived). Instead of live band, we were listening to prerecorded „high-energy“ music ranging from different themed songs like „Nothing's gonna stop us now“ or U2 „Beautiful day“. Barack Obama showed up exactly on time (McCain was approximately 30 minutes late) and he walked thru the crowd shaking hands all the way to the stage. Speech itself was about 40 minutes long and quite differently constructed from McCain’s speech. In his speech most is spent on talking about or envoking different emotions such as hope, change, beleive, and instead of delivering speech from first ssss, Obama talks exclusively about “us”. Also, in contrast to McCain, Obama talks in pictures and short stories, fragments of experience on campaign trail, emails he received, people he meet –and all of those he uses as illustration about issues he is talking about (war, economy, health...). Venue was well lit all of the time, and after the speech Obama left walking thru the crowd and shaking hands with people. Level of emotions on Obama rally seemed to be larger for the order of magnitude, the crowd seemed more „electrified“, and the rally itself seemed more „decent“ -on McCain rally for each and every mention of Barack Obama you could hear loud „Booo“ – single „Booo“ which was heard during Obama speech was cut short by Barack Obama when he said „I do not need you to booo, I need you to vote!“. Emotions you have witnessed in Jacksonville were optimism, hope, positive feelings – while McCain rally in Miami at times glowed with unsaid anger and nervousness. Seeing both US presidential candidates within just a few hours of difference, and just hours before election day is a memorable event; having opportunity to witness and feel the energy and emotion of the crowd, and to see US election machinery in full swing is unforgettable. Now, two weeks after Barack Obama won elections, it is clear that his very unique speaking abilities have made tremendous help in securing his presidency. He speaks clearly, with a calm voice full of emotion and empathy to the crowd, he speaks with a plain language easily understood by anybody – he narrates you a story connected with many smaller images and you receive his message slowly and subtly. Barack Obama is one of the greatest communicators of our time, and hopefully he will be able to use his unique gift during his presidency to bring out compromise where no compromise is seen.


EAPC Conference 2009, Zurich
Monday, November 3, 2008

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