As the ash is blowing in the wind

Helene Klungvik — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:40:52 +0000

I’m thinking about high-speed trains and the benefits it would provide the society. The last three days of plane less skies and volcano ash shows just how vulnerable we are when we rely on one primary way of transportation. Having high-speed trains between the major cities in Europe would make the infrastructure less vulnerable when natural catastrophes happens, because we would have more means of travel. Environmentally it’s also a great benefit, though the politicians might not see it that way since they would have to pay for it.

I would really like the debate about high-speed trains to come back now.

Why was Obama’s run for precidency a successful campaign?

Helene Klungvik — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:01:38 +0000

After Barack Obama won the 2008 US Election, many people was astounded that they would be able to experience a black president in their lifetime. There is a common understanding that Obama’s candidacy was a hugely successful campaign, and the natural question is why was that so?

60 minutes have a made a report about this called “the inner circle” which interviews the key people involved in his campaign:

In this report several reasons are listed:

The precidency campaign were decided and organized within days, not years.
Grass route campaign that managed to get people involved and volunteering.
Internet campaigning, using internet for making donations, facebook, twitter.
They campaigned in states that were republican (enemy territory), believing they could win there.
They organized ride to polls
They got more people registered to vote.

Obama’s campaign managed to organize people at a level of sophistication that have never before been seen. The most important aspect in my opinion was the leadership displayed by Barack Obama that made all of this possible.

His inner circle stated the following:

They didn’t have a lot of discussion about what the message was and what they wanted to do. Obama knew exactly what he wanted to say.
Obama adressed the statements about the racism speech of Obamas former pastor, and it was by Obamas choice. There was no discussion about wether or not he should speak about it.
Obama was clear about his opinions and values.
There was no in-fighting, no leaks, almost no turnovers.
Obama’s motto was “No drama”. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t strong opinions raised, but once they made a descision, they worked as a unit and didn’t look back.
Obama stayed calmed and treated people well. He set an example for the rest of his people.

I really believe that one persons appearance and behaviour affects the people around him/her, and I believe that is one of the key reasons why Obamas campaign was so successful. His reassertive, calm and respectful treatment of people affected and inspired from above (Obama and his inner circle) down to the volunteers on the street. That’s the reason why they managed to organize and reach people on so many levels as they did.

So Congratulations Obama! I hope you will continue to be an example of good leadership in the years to come.

Helene » politics

As the ash is blowing in the wind

Why was Obama’s run for precidency a successful campaign?