DNC convention - Final Day

So the DNC has had it's final day and so far I've rated the convention a D+ so far.

Tonight's two keynotes were Joe Biden and Barack Obama. So without further ado, how did they do?

Barack Obama: F

Ok, let's get right to the meat and potatoes of the president's speech. The two success points for Obama have been GM and killing Osama, so let's move beyond those two items as we all give him credit on that front (although the bailout of GM, in the long run, may turn out to have been a mistake, but let's forget about that for now).

(note: only parts 1 and 2 are available online right now, part 3 probably in the next few hours)

Basically Obama re-hashed every talking point from his 2008 campaign. He's for:

• Clean energy
• Tax breaks for the middle class not the rich
• Opportunities for everyone to live the American dream
• An end to the wars
• Respect for people's constitutional freedoms
• Reduction of the deficit / national debt
• Banks should not be bailed out
• Government doesn't cause the problems (ie. Gov is there for you)

There you have it, that's his pitch. 

Given the carnage going on out there in the real world, from worker salaries, to unemployment, to a stock market that has returned zero percent over the past five years (for those invested prior to the crash), re-hashing all his 2008 messages is about the worst thing I could have imagined him doing. 

The big problem is that a lot of it is out-right dishonest. 

• He's for clean energy yet bailed out a gas-guzzling car company? 
• He's against taxes for the rich, yet gave them tax breaks by extending the Bush tax cuts
• He's for opportunity for everyone... ummmm, and who isn't for that?
• He wants to end the wars, yet they rage on (and Guantanamo is still open)
• He respects constitutional freedoms yet signs the NDAA
• He wants to reduce the deficit yet has increased it by 5-6 trillion in just 4 years
• He says the banks shouldn't be bailed out, yet does nothing when even today they continue to break the law and put their institutions at massive risk of bankruptcy (and when they do collapse, he will bail them out again because he will have to)
• He says gov doesn't create the problems... umm... government caused this recession by repealing regulations that prevented banks from making bad loans and speculating with customer deposited funds. He has done NOTHING to change this.  

So I have to give his speech an F because it's point-for-almost-point non-factual! Now, will the average America realize this? I don't know the answer to that, only time will tell just how uneducated the average voter is or is not. 

The one thing he did do (which was somewhat smart) was re-frame his 2008 'Hope and Change' theme to suggest that 'change comes from you'... and that everything good going on in the America today was because "You Did That".

Clearly this is Obama's very weak attempt to squash the criticism he keeps getting over the words "You Didn't Build That."

So here's the thing, will Democrats like his speech? Probably. 

Will voters who are currently apathetic be cured of their apathy by it? Not a chance. 

Will independents buy in to it? No way. 

Will liberal conservatives buy it? No way. 

The one and only thing that Obama may have done is keep the women's vote by littering his speech with references to women's issues. 

While Obama is a good speaker, the criticism of him over the years has been that seems to be all he's exceptional at. But tonight, from a PR perspective, he wasn't even exceptional at speaking. Put quite simply, he failed to convincingly articulate why he should remain president for the next four years, aside from the same reasons he was elected for back in 2008. 

Joe Biden: D+

I had high hopes for Joe Biden, but to be honest, his speech, like Obama's, was a re-hash of 2008 messaging. 

Basically Biden's message came down to the following:

• Obama had to restore the confidence of the whole world and he did (sorry, but he didn't)
• Obama had the courage to make the tough decisions. Really? He did on foreign policy, but on everything else, even progressive liberals bash the guy for being indecisive and wishy-washy.
• Romney will outsource all the jobs. Oh come on. I agree, Romney will probably be just as bad as Obama as president, but I'm pretty sure his plan is not to purposely destroy America during his presidency. He'll crush the unions, but he's not going to purposely increase unemployment or outsourcing, that's just fear mongering. 

So like Obama's speech, Biden's will probably resonate with true-blue Democrats, but for everyone else it's more of the same, the same messages that were used in 2008 which today most people consider to have been more pandering than actual words of conviction. 

But what we are seeing here are politicians who only know how to pander. That's the game they are in and that's how they became successful. The only problem is that the general public is fed up with pandering. They voted for Obama believing that he was not a panderer. But as we saw tonight, he is one of the biggest panderers out there (and very good at it usually). 

The Audience: D+

I didn't notice this until today, but the audience was pretty much all people over the age of 30. That tells you what has happened to Obama's youth vote... it's gone. This isn't to say they will vote for Romney, but don't expect them to turn out at the voting booth for Obama either. 

So I'm including an audience grade here because from a PR perspective that's part of the message, although a non-verbal one. The DNC audience sends the message that Obama is no longer the candidate of the youth and that's a HUGE voting block that he needs to show up to beat Romney. 

Youth at home watching his speech will not see audience faces of their age group, which subliminally leaves the impression that Obama is no longer 'their' candidate.

Final PR Grade for the DNC: D-

I have to admit, I almost want to give the DNC a grade of C simply because D- seems so negative. And their speeches were filled with lots of positive, family-oriented messages. So it feels a bit strange knocking that, but truth is that's not what this election is about. This election is about JOBS.

But from a PR perspective, with Obama and Biden basically flubbing it big time tonight, what did the DNC accomplish?

The RNC, which I graded a C, at least took a big chunk out of Obama's brand by emphasizing his failures. In addition, they did focus on what matters JOBS.  And even having done those two things I still only gave them a C because their messaging was not the best. 

But after watching the DNC, why would anyone vote for the Democrats? The lasting impression is that you would vote for them because Obama is a family man and nice guy and because the Republicans will enslave you in poverty (so hugs and kisses on the one hand and fear mongering on the other). 

But will any of that get through to voters who weren't already voting for Obama? I just don't think it will. 

Having said that, they didn't hand the election to Romney (although I do think he will get a bounce from this), nor did the RNC hand it to Obama. Looks like this race is still neck and neck, and as I said before, I think everything is going to come down to the presidential debate when Romney and Obama face off. 

I suspect that the vast majority of people will pick their candidate based on the presidential debates, the first of which occurs October 3.

From a PR perspective it's going to be one heck of a spectacle. Whoever has the best answers and best messaging will probably go on to be the next President of the United States.