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How to Win an Election: Ask for Help

Obama Victory

Contributed by Brian Krenz on 03/04/08

One of the most difficult lessons I’ve run into in my young life (I turned 23 last week) is learning how to ask for help. Maybe it’s a phenomenon of simply being young—when you’re young, you think you’re in control of everything, you think you can handle whatever the world throws at you all by yourself. Maybe it’s just me. But I have repeatedly surprised myself with how much easier everything seems when I just ask for help. While this notion is still relatively new to me, it is not new to Barack Obama. The Illinois senator has proven that he can bring together a broad coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans by (in large part) simply asking for their help.

Repeatedly throughout this campaign, the senator has bellowed that this election is not about him, it is about the people. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek,” he said on the night of Super Tuesday. He says that if Americans are ready to demand change, they will get it—he is essentially just a vessel to help carry that change to Washington. The real work is accomplished through the demands of the American public. You want universal health care? Demand it! You want our troops out of Iraq? Demand it! You want the United States to stop warrantless spying? Demand it! An end to torture? Quality, affordable education? Alternative fuels and the demise of global warming? You know what to do. Of course in reality, the role of President Obama would be very important. George Bush has left a surplus of problems for the next president to clean up, and should Obama be that president, he will have an enormously uphill battle making sure those many demands get met. But by asking for the help of millions of Americans in bringing about change, Obama has done something no one else in this election has—he has made not just this campaign or his own rapid ascendancy, but the very future of the nation, about “the people.” The founders would be pleased.
The interesting thing is that for all of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s “experience” (she’s actually spent less time in elected office than Obama), she has failed to do the simplest thing of all. She never asked for “the people” to lift the nation up with her. Through the very experience rhetoric that has driven her entire campaign, she has painted an image that she could do it all by herself. That’s why she continuously touts plan after boring plan—I have a plan for this and I have a plan for that. And when she tries to tap into Obama’s all-encompassing rhetoric, however eerily similar her phrasing may be, she still manages to fall flat. At the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Virginia last month, the senator preached, “I am ready to make your case because your voices are the change we seek and together we will take back the White House and take back America because I see an America where our economy works for everyone not just those at the top, where our prosperity is shared and we create good jobs that stay right here in the United States.” She’s so close, but there it is—“I am ready…because I see an America….” She just can’t help herself. She makes good points and provides fine sentiments, but the overflowing egocentrism in her speeches stands out.

This you-need-me mentality is not nearly as uplifting as Obama’s I-need-you creed, and it doesn’t win elections. At least not this one. Compared with Obama’s message of hope, change, and above all, unity, Clinton’s corpulent pragmatism looks stale and ineffective. I have no doubt that President Hillary Clinton would continue to champion many important causes as president. I do doubt her ability to accomplish the many demands of those important causes without the support of the American people. There is a reason Hillary failed at getting national health care in the ‘90s—she took the same unilateral approach George Bush has taken in Iraq. She was combative and secretive, and while she says she has learned from her mistakes then, everything about her campaign indicates that she has in fact learned nothing. She is still pursuing the same I-centric strategy, and she is still likely to fail.
Ironically, the might of the Clinton-machine was no match for the breadth of Obama’s still infant coalition. The candidate, who was once the inevitable winner, is now soon to fall (though when the knockout blow, to borrow a much-overused boxing analogy, will hit is still up in the air). What is clear is that by reaching out to all voters and by making this campaign about the people, Obama has built a powerful strategy for the months and years to come. We could all take a lesson from the senator’s insistence in asking for help.