It’s Pandering, not Empathy that aided Mr. Obama

 Posted By CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - In a piece published by the UK-based think-tank RSA, Mark Honigsbaum,  a Research Associate at the Institute and Musueum of the History of Medicine in Zurich argues that the US election was defined as much by candidates’ perceived ability to empathize as economic policy.   I say that Mr. Honingsbaum’s  argument is a gross oversimplification.

Clearly  Governor Romney’s  47 per cent remark was used not only by  Democrats  but also by the mostly left leaning American media, as  an example of the Republicans’ ‘empathy deficit’.  While President  Obama blames lack  of empathy as the cause of America’s bitter partisan divides and Mr.  Honigsbaum characterizes Governor Romney’s 47 percent remark as “politically inept,” what the President has consistently exhibited since he was a presidential candidate the first tim, is not an example “empathy-surplus,” but mostly a  divide-and-conquer, otherwise known as a pandering strategy.

Prior to the election and without the benefit of hindsight, I argued that the Republicans were not focused on the its brand and that President Obama had a good shot at a second term mostly due to:

1.  The Mostly radical left & hyphenated media and 
2.  It's target market and
3.  Class warfare.
4.  GOP's inability to counter charges of racism. 

The mostly left Wing and Hyphenated American Media is  well versed at using weapons of mass disinformation to divide and conquer, including class warfare, war on women, war on religion, war on anything that moves and pays taxes...

The target market is the  69% dependent, apathetic and or as President's  might say, stupid voters.  Now, I ask the following:  Is the President’s 69% remark politically brilliant?  Why is it that the media did not cover that remark as much as the 47%?

Or what about President Obama declaration in Turkey that the USA is not a Christian nation, when Gallop poll shows 69% of Americans view themselves as Christians.  Not to mention that the President has resisted to acknowledge the notion of  American Exceptionalism or even that there is such a thing as a war on terror.

I continue to argue that Governor was the right messenger, with an improperly packaged message and a severe lack of infrastructure as evidenced by what I refer to as the Battle of the Whales where the ORCA Project, the campaign-designed voter-tracking app that was supposed to rival the Obama campaign's ground-game efforts was a massive failure:  The community organizer in this case outperformed the business experts.

Clearly empathy is a very important element in branding and while President Obama’s team has excelled at mass customization during elections, it has failed to use similar tools to govern.  Arguing that empathy, as opposed to pandering, was key in the election is a grossly flawed.

In an upcoming piece, I advance a simple road map for the GOP which includes the message, the messenger, the packaging and mass customization suggestions going forward.