While I try to keep the blog apolitical (Rumsfeld & Hughes era posts on military readiness, civil-military relations, and public diplomacy notwithstanding), I’m very happy with Obama’s victory. From the top down, from the President-elect, his Veep-elect, and his advisors have demonstrated through action or writing that they understand the power of public opinion and the need to exercise power smartly, that enduring consequences of actions must be taken into consideration.
We know Obama likes The Team of Rivals, so we can expect him to appreciate the following quote from Lincoln:
Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public opinion is greater than he who enacts laws.
The Obama-Biden victory is very good news for our national security and the public diplomacy and strategic communication communities of practice.
Steve Tatham says:
Matt. From this side of the pond .. hear hear. Analysis of the arab media’s coverage of the election result majored on ‘change’ … both political and cultural… and ‘hope’. It did much to remind Arab audiences of all that is good abotu the US. However Obama has a huge challenge .. to meet the expectations of the Arab world in a realistic time frame, notwithstanding all his other programmes and pledges. Iraq is not actually the issue for most Arabs, pull out now or pull out in 18mths – that is a bigger issue for the US public. But Palestine remains the challenge and he needs to address the PERCEPTION of US inactivity and bias very quickly, even if he unable to achieve tangible results in the short or medium term. And so too with Gitmo Detention facility and Bagram. Perception so easily becomes, in the swirly or rumour and suspicion, reality and the good will that he has clearly banked has a short shelf life. The wheels of Strat Comm need to turn quickly.