Memorandum

To: The Smith Campaign

From: Mike Chen, Campaign Consultant
Date: March 26, 2017
Re: 2016 Campaign Recommendations

President Obama was re-elected due to his determination for change and his attention to the
people. Obama has strengthened the middle class by adding more jobs. Obama has also went
through with his plans to deploy the Navy Seals to capture and kill Osama bin Laden. Obama has
stayed relevant during his campaign by effectively using social media to connect with the general
population of the United States.

Obama Campaign

President Obama was successful in his use of advertisements in his campaign. I watched two
campaign ads from Obama, titled The Choice and One Chance. In The Choice, Obama
discusses his plans to strengthen the middle class by adding more jobs and investing in
education, manufacturing, and American energy production inside an office setting, with subtle,
calming, and upbeat background music to set the mood. Obama calls for taxing the wealthy more
than other Americans to pay down debt in a balanced manner. The Choice is an effective
campaign ad because Obama stays focused on pleasing the majority of the United States. While
Obama mightve upset the wealthy by calling for them to be taxed more, he mitigates this in his
ad by showing the effects of his plans in a positive light. In One Chance, former president Bill
Clinton discusses Obamas decision in 2011 to deploy Navy Seals to find and kill Osama bin
Laden. Obamas decision-making ability is compared to the opening message The Commander-
in-Chief gets one chance to make the right decision. In this ad, a clip from Wolf Blitzer of CNN
News regarding Mitt Romneys opinion disapproval of Obamas actions is played. Romney says
Its not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one
person. Romney does have a point. But Romney must have forgotten that Osama bin Laden was
the perpetrator behind the 9/11 attacks, which killed thousands of Americans. Money can be
regained, but lives cannot. Spending billions of dollars to prevent Osama bin Laden from hurting
the American people in the future is a decision that gives Americans a piece of mind. Obamas
ability to make difficult decisions is highlighted when he says I cannot, in good conscience, do
nothing. The government received information on Osama bin Ladens whereabouts, and as the
Commander-in-Chief, Obama made a decision with this information. Thus, Obama is portrayed
as an assertive and decisive president who puts safety above all, while Romney is portrayed as a
presidential candidate who could care less about the safety of America.

Romney Campaign

Romneys campaign was very ineffective. Romneys ads lacked substance, and they show. I
watched two of Romneys campaign ads, titled Too Many Americans and No, I Cant. In
Too Many Americans, Romney talks inside a home office with neutral background music.
Romney discusses his plans to move people out of poverty and to strengthen the middle class by
creating new middle-class jobs. Too Many Americans is ineffective because he portrays
Obama and the American people in a negative light. Romney conveys negative feelings toward
voters as if they made a bad decision by voting for Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Presidential candidates should strive to build upon what former presidents have established
rather than to bash the very people that voted for those former presidents. In No, I Cant,
Romney enlists the help of college students to voice their opinion regarding Obamas
performance as President of the United States so far. The ad was very deceptive, as the producers
twisted Obamas Yes we can with a quote from an interview, where Obama says You cant
change Washington from the inside. Romney is not giving the people the whole picture. People
do not know what Obama means by being unable to change Washington from the inside. Perhaps
Obama wanted to say that the people also have a voice, or a role in changing Washington.
Obama was probably stressing the fact that the United States is a Democracy. Romney is
essentially portraying Americans as highly demanding people who are unwilling to play their
part in maintaining Democracy. Furthermore, Romney is implying that United States voters are
incapable of voting for what is right. Presidential candidates should ultimately strive to instill
confidence into United States voters. Unfortunately, Romney did not instill confidence into
United States voters.

Swing States

I analyzed two swing states: Colorado and Florida. Obama won both Colorado and Florida.
According to the statistics from the 2015 American Community Survey, the key similarity
between these two swing states is the fact that the voting age population is relatively young, with
49.1% of the total population being in the 20-54 age group in Colorado and 45.6% of the total
population being in the 20-54 age group in Florida. Both swing states also have a significant
Hispanic or Latino population, with 21.1% of the total population in Colorado and 23.7% of the
total population in Florida identifying as Hispanic or Latino. Finally, a majority of the
households in both swing states have an income of less than $100,000, with 73% of households
in Colorado and 81.4% of households in Florida.

The Democratic Party has typically been viewed as a liberal political party that welcomes
change. The Republican Party has been viewed as a conservative political party that is resistant
to change. Generally speaking, young voters, along with Hispanic or Latino populations tend to
have liberal views and thus favor the Democratic Party. The poor and the middle class believe
that there is a rapid growth in inequality. The poor and the middle class want the government to
create more jobs, expand health care, and to improve education. And because the Democratic
Party is welcoming of change, the poor and the middle class identify greatly with the Democratic
Party. Obama had the advantage in Colorado and Florida due to his affiliation with the
Democratic Party. It was in Obamas best interests to appeal to young voters, along with
Hispanics/Latinos and the poor/middle class.

Social Media

Obama was able to properly incorporate social media into his campaign during the 2012
Presidential Election. Pamela Rutledge, author of the article How Obama Won the Social Media
Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign, states that Obama had twice the number of Facebook
Likes and 20 times the number of retweets in comparison to Mitt Romney. Obama also spent
$47 million on digital media in comparison to Romneys $4.7 million. Obamas success with
social media was due to his focus on the quality of his social media content rather than the
amount of content he posts on social media. Obamas campaign team also used social media to
harvest data from their target audiences social media profiles. Actions such as Facebook Likes
and Twitter retweets are recorded, and the list of users who performed such actions is open for
the general population to see. Obamas campaign team utilized such information to discover
what kind of people their target audience associates with, along with the interests of their target
audience. More importantly, Liking and retweeting are forms of word of mouth advertising.
From the 2012 Presidential Election, 30% of social media users have acknowledged that their
social network connections played a role in their decision to vote. By encouraging others to vote
and to share the fact that they went out and voted, social media users feel they are being given an
increasing sense of authority. Overall, by data harvesting and empowerment via social media,
Obama successfully incorporated social media into his campaign.

TablesofStatistics

Colorado

Income and Benefits

Total Households 2,024,468
Less than $10,000 119,023 (5.9%)
$10,000 to $14,999 83,049 (4.1%)
$15,000 to $24,999 182,058 (9.0%)
$25,000 to $34,999 188,483 (9.3%)
$35,000 to $49,999 267,690 (13.2%)
$50,000 to $74,999 371,204 (18.3%)
$75,000 to $99,999 267,561 (13.2%)
$100,000 to $149,999 302,241 (14.9%)
$150,000 to $199,999 125,268 (6.2%)
$200,000 or More 117,891 (5.8%)
Median Household Income (Dollars) $60,629

Race
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 1,112,586 (21.1%)
Not Hispanic or Latino 4,166,320 (78.9%)

Age
Total Population (All Ages) 5,278,906
20-34 Years 1,158,055 (21.9%)
35-54 Years 1,435,799 (27.2%)
55-64 Years 656,993 (12.4%)
65+ Years 644,840 (12.3%)
 Florida

Income and Benefits

Total Households 7,300,494
Less than $10,000 566,780 (7.8%)
$10,000 to $14,999 409,233 (5.6%)
$15,000 to $24,999 885,891 (12.1%)
$25,000 to $34,999 847,139 (11.6%)
$35,000 to $49,999 1,093,259 (15.0%)
$50,000 to $74,999 1,327,002 (18.2%)
$75,000 to $99,999 806,959 (11.1%)
$100,000 to $149,999 788,595 (10.8%)
$150,000 to $199,999 278,520 (3.8%)
$200,000 or More 297,116 (4.1%)
Median Household Income (Dollars) $47,507

Race
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 4,660,733 (23.7%)
Not Hispanic or Latino 14,985,039 (76.3%)

Age
Total Population (All Ages) 19,645,772
20-34 Years 3,770,770 (19.2%)
35-54 Years 5,174,704 (26.4%)
55-64 Years 2,529,565 (12.9%)
65+ Years 3,650,991 (18.5%)
 Bibliography

Greenberg, Edward S., and Benjamin I. Page. The Struggle for Democracy. 2012 Election ed.

Boston: Pearson, 2014.

Rutledge, Pamela. "How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential

Campaign." The Media Psychology Blog. January 25, 2013. Accessed March 15, 2017.

http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-

presidential-campaign/.

U.S. Census Bureau. "2015 American Community Survey." United States Census Bureau. 2015.

Accessed March 17, 2017.

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml.