Why Obama Won: Building a Cult of Personality (Part I)

We have to agree that the presidential race something like a high school popularity contest. Candidates claw at eachother in attempts to entice the proverbial student body to come to their house party.

The issues are mostly similar, and most of the time are not even discussed, and if they are, the facts are diluted with good old joe the plumber-like stories. Furthermore, i’m sure that you can recognize that most of the campaigns are based upon smearing the competitors image (Jeremiah wright, Bill Ayers). This is where building the cult of personality becomes such an integral part of campaign strategy and i commend Barack’s top campaign advisor David Axelrod for being so cunning.

A cult of personality is created with the use of mass media to generate positive emotions towards the issuer. The cult of personality then becomes a base of supporters and voters who buy into the mythology. The more convincing the mythology, the harder it is to resist. Barack Obama’s mythology was created in the following way:

First you must base the individual on an idea that most people can buy into: The Greek Gods where the embodiments of certain ideals and abstractions. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, while Ares was the God of Bloodlust. Barack Obama is the embodiement of change (remember the slogan: “change we can believe in.”)

This is highly effective, especially at a time in which the populace is looking to escape from the dismal conditions the U.S. had been thrust into since the current president had taken seat. It is dealing with an unpopular war on two fronts, an economic crisis on both wall street and main street, and dismal popularity on the international scene. Change seems to be the only logical step towards a newer, richer, and likeable U.S., and the american citizens recognized this. So to build an extensive Obama’s mama’s directory, it is first necessary to create that mythology.

How else was he able to build his cult of personality and strengthen his mythology….thats the next post.

what do you think?