President Obama and Agenda for Possible Second Term - Essay Example

President Obama and Agenda for Possible Second Term United States president is elected through a competitive political system, which has only two main parties the Democratic and the republican parties. The presidential candidates in the current elections are Barrack Obama for the Democratic Party and Mitt Romney for the Republican Party (Morgan, 2012). The candidates need to have outstanding communication skills and campaign system, which will successfully sell their ideologies for possible election by the public. The campaign teams need to develop proper strategies to ensure that presidential candidate and party wins the elections with majority votes. Over the years, through the development of broadcast technology, candidates are given an opportunity by the media to sell their policies through a public debate. This platform helps them to improve on their campaigns, and it assists the voters to evaluate also the candidates. The communication advisor is necessary during the campaign period because he advises the candidate and party on what strategies to use to ensure victory in the elections. As a communication advisor in the Barrack Obama campaign team in the current elections, I would suggest prioritization of some issues during the final weeks of the campaign. This essay will highlight the current trending issues in the country’s politics, and advice on some arguments and the positions that the team should emphasize on. During the final campaign weeks, some issues should not be emphasized on as shall be pointed out in the essay; moreover, the last weeks of campaigning are prominent in gathering the votes of the undecided voters, and developing trust from the voters on the direction, which the country should take. Political structures are social structures in the society; therefore, the campaign teams need to consider the social dynamics in the society for their success. The key factor is that campaigns involve communication of messages to the public with an objective of getting their support during the elections. Therefore, it is necessary to design the message to appeal to the voters (White, 2010). In addition, the social judgment theory applies to every person because people hear a message then they compare it with another, and they make a judgment on where to place it in the different mental categories. Further, people develop some mental yardsticks (Latitudes) of acceptance, rejection and non-commitment to a message. Therefore, in the case of Obama’s campaign, one needs to know what and how to communicate messages to the public in order to persuade them towards the desired direction or voting. In Obama’s campaign, the use of persuasive social skills to influence voters is easier than in Romney’s team because Obama has excellent, persuasive skills through his speech. Persuasion and influence of people is necessary in all the social theories, and is essential to getting people to accept the party’s political ideologies and policies. In the current political campaign, the candidates are contesting in their campaigns on several issues. Some of them include foreign policies, energy, education, healthcare and the economy. In this presidential campaign, I would suggest that the issues to do with foreign policy and energy should not be focused on by the Obama Campaign team during the last weeks towards elections. This is because the policies and suggestions on these issues are not different to the ones used in the previous four years of the Obama Administration. Therefore, based on the consistency theory, people do not expect them to change so the campaign should focus on other, different issues (Clarke, 2008). In the economic, education and healthcare issues, there are many differences in policies between the candidates and hence, the campaign should emphasize on them in order to develop proper social judgment from the voters. The boomerang effect will also play an advantage to the campaign team since the Obama administration has been successful in some of the policies as compared to Romney’s suggestions, which the voters are doubtful. The first issue that the team should focus on towards the final campaign weeks is the creation of jobs by dealing with sues on the economy and these economic issues include manufacturing and taxes. On manufacturing, the campaign should focus on the creation of jobs in the industry; moreover, the manufacturing industry has been vital in the American economy for ages. (White, 2010) This is due to its boost on the economy through the creation of jobs, and promoting the pride of America as a manufacturing hub. The campaign should focus on commitment to regain the country’s manufacturing competitiveness, in this case, it should focus on proposing legislation that encourages investment in the manufacturing industry, improving the manufacturing infrastructure, strengthening the industries and creating a uniform operating environment for all stakeholders. The strategies that the campaign adopts should focus on enhancing the manufacturing industry by making it easier for companies to get the raw materials needed in industrial processes. This will ensure that the industry has continuity over the years (Schmid, 2011). The policies should also emphasize on creating training partnerships between firms, unions and education institutions for workers who are needed in the industry, this will enhance the availability of the required workers for jobs in the industry, which are related to the job market. Lastly, the campaign should continue to focus on the newly established office on manufacturing policy that will help in creating a vibrant manufacturing sector. The office should be given powers to oversee issues in the industry through promotion of sophisticated technology to enhance production. The campaign objective is the creation of over 1 million jobs by the year 2016 and increasing American exports by twice the number in the next period (Schmid, 2011). The second economic aspect that the campaign should focus on is taxes because; they consist of government’s revenue, which has a direct impact on the economy. In the past years, the Obama administration has focused on restoration of fairness in tax remission, support of the middle class and consistency of taxes for all people. As the consistency theory suggests, these principles should continue to be the foundation of the country’s legislation so that there is acceptance. In addition, the campaign should focus on new tax policies, and should first insist on ending tax breaks to firms that are exporting jobs to other countries (Obama for America, 2012). This is because the tax breaks are encouraging companies to outsource labor to overseas countries, which leads to loss of employment opportunities. The policies should also be focused on giving tax breaks to firms that are willing to invest in the country, recruiting citizens as workers and selling products made in the country. In the focus on taxes, the campaign policies should focus on reforms on the current corporate tax code in order to bring down tax rates for the domestic manufacturers (White, 2010). This policy intends to cut the corporate taxes by 25 percent (Nitti, 2012). This policy will widely be acceptable because it will close loopholes on the existing corporate tax regulations. Focus on these economic issues will enhance public confidence with the democrat’s policies. These are different from Romney’s wrong policies because they advocate for preservation of tax loopholes, which will continue to facilitate payment of lower taxes by the millionaires than the working class. In addition, the policies will enhance the creation of jobs and growth in the economy unlike the competitor’s policies that favor low cost manufacturing that cuts job opportunities (Nitti, 2012). Lastly, these economic policies on tax breaks will act as incentives for creation of jobs unlike Romney’s strategies that encourage shipment of jobs overseas, which will in turn encourage labor outsourcing. The second main issue that the Obama Campaign should focus on during the last weeks of campaigns is healthcare. Healthcare is a significant contributing factor of the United States economy cost because of its rank as the biggest healthcare system globally (Morgan, 2012). The healthcare system in the country has a significant impact on wages, retirement security and public health costs, which contributes to the national deficits and debts. So far, the campaign has an advantage on healthcare policy suggestions due to the Obamacare reforms which has been regarded as successful. Therefore, a continuation of the same or improved policies should be promoted since they will be accepted by the voters due to the arguments on consistency theory. It benefits the majority of the population through expanding access to lower cost healthcare programs. The program is currently inclusive of every stakeholder in the industry. The campaign should promote the healthcare program because it prevents insurance companies from interfering with healthcare policies, and promotes provision of preventive healthcare to citizens. In the current campaigns, this will be stronger than Romney’s arguments, which tend to lead the sector to the old, expensive plans. In addition, this healthcare plan has greater choices for women and patients than what the republicans are advocating for. The third leading campaign booster in the final weeks for the Obama Campaign team for a second term is the focus on education; moreover, Shmid (2012) argues that good education policies are the best way to gain the middle class votes in the country (1). During the final weeks, the campaign should focus on proposing for significant investments in the education sector in order to create more opportunities. Therefore, it should advocate for the amendment of the No Child Left Behind law which is considered as restrictive for students and schools (Straus, 2012). In addition, the campaign should focus on promoting affordable higher education by pressing for tax credits for college students. This will ensure that many students are enrolled in colleges and learning institutions. Lastly, the campaign should continue to emphasize on employment of new qualified teachers in schools, and they should be assigned to a reasonable number of students. This will enhance the quality of education in the schools (Obama for America, 2012). These policies will strengthen Obama’s Campaign because they promote improvement of education standards, unlike Romney’s strategies, which do not aim to raise achievement of students. In addition, Obama's approach of fewer students in classrooms is better as it promotes job opportunities for teachers and quality of education unlike Romney’s policies on cutbacks on the number of teachers (Straus, 2012). These policies will help the campaign team to gain voter preference among the middle class who are the majority in the public schools. References Clarke, K. (2008). Consistency Theory. Theories.com. Retrieved from http://theories.com/index.php?/Consistency-Theory.html Morgan, D. (2012, October 4). Obama, Romney Debate Sheds little light on Health care Issues. Reuters Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/us-usa-campaign-healthcare-idUSBRE8930A920121004 Nitti, T. (2012). President Obama releases Agenda for Possible Second Term. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2012/10/24/president-obama-releases-agenda-for-a-potential-second-term-dissecting-the-tax-aspects/2/ Obama for America. (2012). Issues. Retrieved from http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ Schmid, J. (2011). Obama Establish Office On Manufacturing Policy. Sentinel. Retrieved from http://www.jsonline.com/business/obama-establishes-an-office-of-manufacturing-policy-rc3dhmr-135439343.html Straus, V. (2012). President Obama Interview on Education. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/president-obama-interview-for-education-nation--transcript/2012/09/25/a6b3edd2-074f-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html White, D. (2010, April 10). Obamas Make it in America Agenda. About.com. Retrieved from http://usliberals.about.com/od/theeconomyjobs/a/ObamaTaxPolicy.htm Read More