How Obama Won #election2012.

Phew!  I don't think I could have coped with living in a world where an inspirational humanitarian,  focussed on lifting the fortunes of his fellow man, is swapped out by a management consultant focussed on running the world's most powerful nation like a multi-national.  

But could it have been any closer?  The US was split down the middle more-or-less 50-50 per cent, with only a few tens of thousands voters making the difference.  There is so much analysis now in play about how Romney lost - was it the 47 per cent video, #Sandy or the fact that the Democrats' 2008 coalition of the young, women, Hispanics and African Americans (far many more of whom voted this year than in 2008) shut Romney out.  But it increasingly seems to me now that it is not so much about Romney losing.  I think it is more about how the Democrats managed to prevail on the day - and it is in and of itself a very inspiring story.

You can tell from the moment that a tear rolls down Obama's cheek in this thank you speech to his ground troops the morning after his victory how important he knows their work was.  Obviously Bill Clinton played a very important part - but his role should be seen not as an invidual but as a member of a hard-working and highly effective team (as this terrific story explains).  

It is a fact that became clear to me very early on in the piece watching the results come in, and seemed so key even at the time that I tweeted the comments from CNN's John King: "we have all under-estimated the Democrats ground game" as it became apparent that the ground troops in Ohio and other tight marginals had a far more effective get-the-vote-out ground game than the Republicans.

The Obama team's use of social was as effective on this occasion as last election, with a tweeted picture of Barack and his wife Michelle on the moment of victory becoming the most re-tweeted tweet ever.  But more critically, the @barackobama team ran a campaign around #stayinline as they at some point realised that those still in line when the polls closed still had the right to vote and therefore needed to stay put.

Then this morning, I saw this tweet from my former boss, Marc Benioff, another piece of the puzzle fell into place.

It seems despite Romney's pitch to the nation that it took a businessman to manage the country out of its economic woes, not a big-government-arian; it seems his team couldn't manage itself out of a paper bag.  Their use of technology seems riddled with school-boy errors and ultimately proved not only ineffective but fully counter-productive.  Read this article detailing the unmitigated technology disaster that was the Republican ground game and you'll get a sense of that special brand of business management he would have brought to the American economy had he been elected.  

It is singularly hope-inspiring that while this was the most expensive election of all time, with at least a billion in campaign funds blown in just the last few weeks on attack ads, it was the ground game of a few thousand dedicated and highly-motivated troops just working hard - combined with the commitment of a few tens of thousands of supporters making that effort to get out and vote - that made the difference.  Despite what the cynics say - you can't buy the most important Democratically elected job in the world - you have to earn it.  Barack Obama deserves it not just because of the hope that he inspires in his people; but because of the attention to detail and hard work ethic he instills in his team.

UPDATE: Romney's Digital Director repsonds to criticisms here, saying - amusingly - that he and his team didn't "give up on data" (even though they had given up on 47 per cent of the population).

A rising tide lifts all boats.

I've recently been fortunate to make a brief visit to the US.  San Francisco in fact.  Again.  It's always exciting to visit the states of course, particularly there.  Home of so much of our culture from films to music to literature.  I ate a burger in the diner where "American Graffitti" was shot, and was more excited than almost anywhere else I can remember eating.

But at the same time it always depresses me immensely though.  America can be so horribly heartless and miserly which I always find sadly ironic for a country which attempted to institutionalise love for one's fellow man at the core of its constitution.

Every visit I see something that makes me angry about the way the poor and unfortunate are alienated and maligned in the world's richest country.  On this occasion it was the dual issues of Healthcare and tax reform.  In short, the Republicans were successfully fighting to preserve George Bush's regressive tax cuts for the rich of 2000; while at the same time Failed Presidential Candidate Sen Huckabee was running a massive campaign to repeal Obama's healthcare reform, which I consider to be one of the most progressive pieces of reform in a generation.

I am completely dumbfounded why so many people there can be so selfish and cruel in the way they exclude so many other people from the wealth and success the nation has enjoyed for so long.  However I was tremendously heartened by an event I was lucky enough to attend during this visit (courtesy of the Salesforce Foundation.)

While at times a little corny, cliched and even cringe-worthy, Stevie Wonder's words were very moving as he sought to remind a 15,000-strong audience in The Moscone Centre of the following:

"I am grateful for the gift of being blind as it allows me to see the world without colour," he said.  "Pain is the same no matter what colour we are.  There are far more similarities [between us] than not. We need to get beyond our differences. We cannot allow negativity to come between us...we have to move forward...every single one of us has value."

His words put me in mind of Martin Luther King, some of which are in fact inscribed on a monument to the great man not a stone's throw from where Stevie spoke.  It also put me in mind of JFK's important words, "our most basic common link is that we inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we all mortal."

However, the words that gave me even greater hope and optimism were said by the esteemed speaker who followed him.   Amusingly he opened his speech with, "after a lifetime as a mediocre musician, I never thought Stevie Wonder would open for me!"

I always think that in my lifetime it was Bill Clinton's term of office that offered the most hope, not only for America, but for humanity.  During his reign the world seemed to be on the up.  The past seemed just that, passed.  His term saw unprecedented peace in the world, witnessed the explosion of technologies that have revolutionized the way we live, and saw great reform and progression.

Railing passionately against inequality, former President Bill Clinton also reprised JFK's vision, this time that of a rising tide that lifted all boats, not just some.  He talked about how the banking and finance sector had enough money in its reserves to pull the nation out of recession and improve life for those that are suffering from record unemployment, property repossessions and poverty - but instead go cap in hand to the government, which in turn was forced to bail them out at the expense of programs that could help those same poor and needy.  He spoke also of healthcare, of education and if course climate change and how very meekly the US stacked up against so many other countries' efforts to to tackle them. 

He spoke for a good 90 minutes, both in a speech and then in Q and A.  (With Stevie's segment, I was in the hall for a total of two and a half hours.  I stood for almost all of it.  I was happy to.)  He said many things that were inspiring, enlightening and moving.  While Mr Wonder had very poetic and I guess Wonderful things to say, it was Mr Clinton who actually drew a picture of how things should be:

"We've got to be in the business of tomorrow," he said towards the end. When asked what "tomorrowland" would look like he said that it would be a place of community, diversity and fiscal equality, and with a sensible attitude to immigration.

I liked the sound of it.  I wondered if I would ever be able to visit that America instead.  And I wondered (pardon the pun) if the delegates at Congress could begin to vote in reforms that would start to move towards tomorrowland instead of busily denying the disadvantaged any of the advantages they desperately seek. 

Or at the very least perhaps they could repeal the law passed after Roosevelt limiting presidents to only two terms, because I can tell you, that hall in San Francisco was on its feet clapping and cheering for the longest time!