obama’s “super gun”

behind every winning strategy lies a killer app, a competitive edge, a “super gun” so to speak. it turns out that even elizabeth i’s navy had such a “super gun”, literally, when defeating the spanish armada, see here. elizabeth i’s navy’s super guns did prompt me to think about what are obama’s super guns in light of his recent state of the union speech delivered to congress recently.

we all know about his oratory talent, now powerfully he can deliver a message, how carefully constructed his thoughts are. we all know that he is a pragmatist. we all know that he is cautious yet when all has been analyzed and decided he turns up to be methodical and relentless in the pursuit of his goals. we all know he is charismatic. we all know he brings hope and a positive message. neither of the above is his super gun of the moment though.

his super gun of the moment is his utter focus on the economy and how he is delivering his economic message to the country. in a sense he is following reagan and clinton’s playbook to a tee. fix the economy first and foremost, remain pragmatic, and deliver progress. both reagan and clinton used this strategy to either get elected or re-elected with great success. of course, some will say that obama does not have much choice in the matter. the big ugly bearish economic outlook and the mother of all global recessions is difficult to avoid. still, he does have a choice. he could make the choice of ideology, of spending programs for the sake of spending programs, of a pure democratic agenda. but such is not the case in my humble opinion. had you listened carefully to his state of the union speech, you would have noticed his stressing american ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and the need for all, not only government, to do their part. arguably a far cry from a traditional “government is the solution” democratic message.

contrast this with the republican response delivered by jindal, the governor of louisiana. jindal was all about ideology, stressing the very traditional republican message of the last 30 years, “government is the problem not the solution”, thereby forgetting to focus on the economy and being pragmatic at the same time, which may have led him and his fellow republicans to other conclusions and another message.

what does this tell me going forward? if the republicans do not move away from the same ideological message, they will continue to suffer losses at the polls. if obama continues focusing on the economy, with time – he does have 4 years – he will be re-elected. maybe a hasty prediction, but i will stick with it for the time being.