In more than any election in recent history, the pushing of the candidate's persona has become central to each campaign's messaging. It has not been confined to only in what they wish to convey about themselves. But also in what they wish to convey about their opponent. Personas are meant to represent archetypal representations of a target person, albeit a product user, consumer, business customer, or voter. In the political realm this usually gets stretched a bit whereby the choices of descriptive labels are meant to provoke powerful images. The uses of powerfully descriptive words are intended to create a mental image in the minds of the voters as well as the media about each other. What do these choices of words convey and create in mental images?
calm, cool, collective, angry, fighter, professorial, paling around, erratic, impulsive, experienced, hero, maverick, patriotic, leader, change, dangerous, liar, judgment, elite, champion, terrorist, fraud, temperament, bail out, rescue, reformer, we, I, and you
Among many other words, each word is calculated to help create a mental image as well as descriptive "persona" about each person. In the third and final debate, we were introduced to Samuel Wurzelbacher now famously known as "Joe the Plumber." The attempt by McCain here, in addition to making it relevant to criticizing Obama's tax policy, was to conjure up the mental image of being in touch with the "persona" of the average middle-class worker and business owner. Now poor Joe (or correctly Sam) really does not even own a business yet and he has been thrust into the limelight unfairly to represent the persona of a small business owner who struggles yet makes $251,000 annually and thus does not qualify for Obama's plan to reduce taxes for those 95% of Americans making less than $250,000 per year (for joint filing; $200,000 single filing).
Also interesting in this presidential election are the vice presidential candidates and the "personas" they are attempting to project. In the case of Sarah Palin, you have the descriptive word labels of hockey mom, reformer, maverick, folksy, hunter, and executive being used to create a "persona" of Sarah the Barracuda. Of course, Tina Fey has done more than the media or the Obama-Biden campaign to create a different "persona" of Sarah Palin in the minds of the voter than the McCain campaign had hoped for. Joe Biden consistently harkens back to his roots in Scranton, PA to embrace a persona of being one of those hard working blue collar people who have struggled economically in their lifetime of living in Pennsylvania. The stories of his dad telling him when a champ gets knocked down, he gets back up is meant to instill the image of the working class guy persona on your side. Of course the McCain-Palin camp hopes to wrap Joe Biden in the persona of a Washington insider.
The recent financial crisis also offered up how each candidate's behavior is meant to elicit a mental "persona" in the mind's of voters. John McCain's announcement to suspend his campaign and to charge into Washington appeared as an attempt to paint the mental persona of the fighter, the leader, the man who leads the troops on the front lines, and the man who can single handily save the day. Sort of your political Jack Bauer of the day, meant to suspend the campaign for 24 hours and ride out of Washington as the hero who saved the country from imminent doom. Obama on the other hand attempted to foster a mental persona of the leader who is calm under fire, a consensus builder, knows how to get people working together, can manage from afar, and can articulate principled plans and assurances to the American people.
In past presidential campaigns, we have had downright comical behavioral attempts by politicians to fit into a persona they think will resonate with voters. Who can remember John Kerry going hunting? How about Michael Dukakis riding an army tank? What about Bill Clinton hitting every donut shop and gaining 30 pounds that was parodied in a SNL skit? And remember George H.W. Bush shopping in a grocery store and failing miserably at the check out counter? This year, I think Obama learned the lesson of staying away from a bowling alley.
Body language and stature also have been used to help create a picture of a persona in the minds of a voter. Obama has a more reserved body language that is meant to align with the calm leader under crisis persona. McCain's body language has been to lean forward and to align with the image of a fighter.
At times, both have let their guard down and displayed body language that is shall we say - out of whack. In the third and final debate, McCain's body language of sighing and eyes rolling was eerily similar to that of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. His body gestures caused voters to paint a mental persona of the "angry" man. Obama, in an earlier debate with Hillary Clinton, smirked and made a comment that caused voters to paint a mental persona of one who is dismissive and arrogant.
Since 1964, how many political aspirants have used the famous gestures of John F. Kennedy at press conferences and briefings to paint a mental persona of the thoughtful, articulate, and humorous leader with exuberated royal Camelot-like leadership? Too many to count!
At each of their respective conventions, we saw the carefully staged drop backs and visuals to support the persona they wished to project for each candidate. In the case of Obama at Mile High Stadium (I just can’t say Pepsi Center!), we saw the columns and the setting that may have been meant to evoke a Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” moment in history. With John McCain, the portrayal of the “war hero” was most evident. The visual of McCain’s entrance on the extended stage may have been an attempt to project McCain in the same light as George C. Scott’s portrayal of General Patton in the movie “Patton.” Whereby there is the famous scene of General Patton giving an expletive laced speech with a giant American flag as the drop back.
As I am positing here, the concept of calculating personas has become an ingredient of political campaigning. If we were to imagine a group of advisors sitting around discussing personas, what rough sketches of personas might they come up with? Let’s start with the McCain campaign:
Here is the “persona” they hope to project about Barack Obama (I am using capitalization to show what they may emphasize):
Now let’s see how they might create a McCain persona they want to project:
Now let’s take a look at the McCain campaign’s latest target voter, Joe the Plumber:
Imagine now the Obama camp of advisors, strategizing about personas. Here is what they may be thinking of how to project a persona of John McCain to voters:
Of course, they want to put the best foot forward for their candidate, Barack Obama:
Imagine if you will, the Obama camp getting into an argument and saying that Joe the Plumber is not their target voter. What might be Obama’s target voter? Let’s take a look at a fictional persona, Susan Masten, from suburban Philadelphia:
Following some of the principles of persona creation, in this rough sketch Susan can easily be an independent voter who leans Democrat. In contrasting Joe the Plumber with Susan, it is a little more obvious in how each candidate might be messaging to their base as well as independents.
Undoubtedly, in this new technology age of presidential elections, the use and power of personas will become increasingly prominent. There is an inherent danger in this premise that we must all be on guard. That is, how candidates will shape their own persona as well as that of their opponent further and further away from what is real and truthful. This is already a common problem in politics when we have 20 second sound bites and organizations like Fact Check to weigh in on the attacks and assertions of candidates. However, there is a very big upside to political campaigns if they adopt persona-based research and creation into their efforts as have an increasing number of corporations in their design, sales, and marketing efforts. (And I am not talking about focus groups that many of these same corporations have lessened their use of due to the lack of insight they provide. I am talking about real qualitative research that yields profound insight.) They will deepen their understanding of voters and constituencies. Giving them the insight they need to connect better with voters and to deliver messages and platforms that are in tune with that of the voters.
Being in tune in this sense is the key. Unfortunately, many people are “tuned out” on politics because they hear the same 4 or 5 point based messages from political candidates over and over ad nauseam. Barack Obama seems to have captured the essence of this premise early in his campaign and it is one of the reasons he is on the verge of becoming the next president. John McCain, at this moment in time, never seemed to have captured the connection to voters that was beyond the same rhetoric commonly heard from politicians.
It is not an easy task to find that “nerve” that electrifies. Adopting persona principles and understanding in political campaigns offers a promise that politicians will understand their constituencies better and connect with voters on a meaningful level. Certainly, a process by which more people will become engaged in the political process.
Speaking of which, make sure you exercise your civic duty and right to go out and vote!
