So how do you tell America you’re running for President? Well apparently these days the answer is through an online video. Former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty was set to announce his candidacy for President in Iowa on Monday, May 23, 2011. Instead, on Sunday, May 22, 2011, Pawlenty released a web- video making this statement. Followers of Pawlenty on Twitter and Facebook, or those who may have gone to his website were able to view the 2 ¼ minute video, which explained that the next day in Iowa, he would really begin to kick off the campaign. This is not unlike Pawlenty who, about two months ago, announced that he was forming an exploratory committee via Facebook video.
Now, for the first four months of this year, I dedicated much of my time to writing my Thesis on the use of hope as an emotional appeal in political campaigns. I conducted an historical analysis of four focal campaigns, John F. Kennedy’s in ‘60, Ronald Reagan’s in ‘80, Bill Clinton’s in ‘92, and Barack Obama’s ’08, as well as the campaigns of the candidate who won the presidency in the election years immediately prior to and following the fore mentioned campaigns. In addition to researching the context (economic state and involvement in foreign crises) of the country during those election years, I also analyzed dozens and dozens of campaign advertisements and speeches.
Now, I can go on and on on this topic, but the point that I’m trying to make here, is that I have studied a lot (and I mean a lot) of Obama’s advertisements from 2008, and there is no question that Obama based his campaign on the idea of hope. The advertisements and statements the President has made in regards to the 2012 campaign all point to him re-focusing on this idea. The web-video that Pawlenty released Sunday, seems to show that he too will be running on hope.
The video begins with an image of a search engine, with the words “how to tell America you’re running for president.” Melodic music (typical of hope-based advertisements) plays in the background as Pawlenty explains that he could get up behind a podium and make this announcement, but that wouldn’t be making any tough decisions, and instead he wanted to be straight forward in saying how much trouble the country is in. (How he thinks making a web-video shows that he can make “tough decisions” is beyond me, and a topic for another blog, but I digress). Pawlenty goes on to explain how he is a product of the American Dream, a tactic used by both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama when they were initially running for President. Theses statements are voiced over a backdrop of scenes that evoke hope- the flag waving in the wind, crowds of people cheering, a sun rising over a field, people going to work, as well as images of children, signifying the future. The advertisement ends with Pawlenty saying, “We’ll change our country, and this time, it will be for the better.” Here, Pawlenty brings back a word and a subsequent theme of Obama’s campaign in the 2008 election, change. In this case, Pawlenty is clearly making a jab at Obama, implying that the changes which have come during his presidency have not been good, and it seems as though Pawlenty is trying to recycle the idea for this campaign.
In the 2008 election, Obama seemed to have won the online battle against McCain. In the 2012 election cycle, there is no doubt that the internet is going to play an increasingly important role in reaching the public. It seems that Tim Pawlenty is taking every chance he can to tweet and update his way onto the screens of the American electorate. Pawlenty appears to be building off of many of the strengths Obama utilized in the 2008 election, but will Pawlenty have the ability to beat the President at his own game? The odds seem against him at this point, but as a political science professor I had in undergrad used to always say, “Anything can happen in politics.”
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