Obama Road to Change: Texas

[Hilary Franceschini]

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid900881681/bclid900480...
The election season of 2008 might just be the most interesting one yet. So far, we have a woman, an ethnic minority, and a POW. Each has his/her own credentials and is battling for the most prestigious political occupation in the world. This video focuses on Senator Barrack Obama’s race to the White House in Texas and his campaign strategy of using nurturance to show his responsibility to the masses of voters.


The video opens with distinctive western music and clips of the Texas capitol, the flag, a windmill spinning in the brush of the rural west, cattle running, an other shots of the authentic Texas feel to create an aura that targets the audience it was created for. The video then picks up pace and shows crowds cheering and holding signs that declare the holder’s support for Barrack Obama. Two smiling women, one black, the other white, stand side by side holding identical Obama signs. One states the idea of what the video is trying to get across, “Texas for Obama” while The other woman shares, “We believe in him and what he stands for”. The video continues and gives ideas, standpoints, and concerns that Texans have in relation to the Obama campaign. It gives glimpses of the cultural diversity that Texas offers, showing people from all over Texas with different ethnical backgrounds supporting this man. Several moments of the ad focus on ordinary people talking about their experiences in the Obama campaign and why they think he is the best candidate for President. To give some celebrity support, hispanic comedian George Lopez was featured. The video showed Obama himself relatively few times in the video -he speaks for about a minute out of the four minutes and forty-four seconds- focusing instead on his supporters and their opinions.


To aid in explaining principles held by the political liberals and conservatives, George Lakoff, a professor of cognitive science at the University of California at Berkeley, has introduced the metaphor of “The Nation as a Family” in his writing Metaphor, Morality, and Politics. Here, he categorizes conservatives and liberals into the Strict Father model and the Nurturant Parent model, respectively. In each, he lists and explains characteristic metaphors of morality that relate to each of the models, where Senator Barrack Obama can be seen as fitting comfortably into the Nurturant Parent side. This classification gives the reader insight on the thought process of each side- why they think the way they think. There are two morality metaphors that involve nurturance that the video portrays Obama as: nurturance relating to personal empathy for other people and social nurturance, which deals with communities as a whole. The first example of Morality as Nurturance that we can see in the video is where Misty Turbeville explains her idea that Obama will be a relief, because “It’s a welcome change to think that… here’s some one that will reach out”. She believes that Obama will reach out to the country and be there for people when he says he will, unlike the current administration. This need for our government to reach out to us, and take care of us is like the Nurturance metaphor “People needing help are Children needing care” (Lakoff 14). Perhaps a better example is the part of the video where he is speaking to a large group of students in Austin. He says, “I think it’s about time that we made college was affordable for every young person in America”, and continues on about how he plans to have the government will give each college student $4,000 in exchange for community service. This can be supported by the Morality as Nurturance idea that “A child is helpless and to care for a child, you have to care about that child, which requires seeing the world through the child’s eyes as much as possible” (14). Obama is saying that he sees how college prices are rising and wants to help students get through school by funding them with federal money. Another example of this idea that is not from the video is his proposal “that senior citizens who earn less than $50,000 be exempt from income taxes” (Tumulty 45). Again, Obama is saying that he can see how money can be tight for some people and he wants to help out, in this case by exempting low-income seniors from income taxes. These views can be seen from early on in his career where he shares them in an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show when his book The Audacity of Hope came out: “what we don’t spend enough time talking about is our mothers and fathers getting paid enough so that they can support their kids and send them to college. Are we making sure that if a child gets sick that somebody’s there to provide them adequate health care” (“Barrack Obama on Tough Questions”)? He even reflects his source of politics, which mirror the thought by Lakoff by talking about his mother later in that interview, “She taught me empathy… if I did something, messed up, she’d just say, ‘How would that make you feel if somebody did that to you?’ And that ends up being, I think, at the center of my politics. And I think that should be the center of all our politics” (“Barrack Obama on Tough Questions”). It is this care for others that individuals find so attractive about Senator Obama. In an interview with SAC kinesiology major Brandon Gomez, he said, “It seems as though he is for the little guy, people that aren’t rich. He cares about what the middle class needs”. Again, we can see how supporters believe that he will take care of their problems with a policy of nurturance.


There are several interviews with Obama supporters in the video that reflect the Morality as Social Nurturance metaphor. The first, and most interesting, is pointed out by Linda Curtis, founder of the political organization Independent Texans. She says, “I don’t think he ever really uses the word much ‘I’. He uses the word ‘we’, ‘you’.” She notices that his speaking reflects the thought that Obama thinks about the interests of the nation as a whole much more than furthering his own interests. Lakoff says identifies that nurturing “parents develop close bonds with children and teach them empathy and responsibility towards others and toward society… The obedience of children comes out of love and respect for parents, not out of fear of punishment.” (13). Using “we”, instead of “me”, makes Obama more identifiable with the group, more as a member, than a disciplinarian. Another feature this video brings out is his knack for accentuating community, the likeness of us all, rather than our differences. He is seen as someone who brings people together, making the perceived dissimilarities that separate into diversity that strengthens. One young woman in the video shares that, “it’s not for Senator Obama. He stands for community, and that’s what he’s done. He’s brought all these people together to work for a common goal, which is getting him elected, but also for us to build relationships with each other that people we would never meet otherwise”. Carol Hicks, a middle aged black lady from DeSoto, talks about the age range that she noticed while working in the campaign headquarters: “He’s involving everybody. I’ve gone down to headquarters and I’ve seen some of everybody. I’ve seen some older people, I’ve seen some younger people, I’ve seen some people my age, so you know, everybody’s happy, so I feel good about that.” These two examples shows the idea of having people realizing their full potential, come together “as a community in which children have commitments and responsibilities that grow out of empathy for others” (13). Several times in the video members of the Republican Party are shown supporting the Democratic Obama. This does not seem to be too uncommon. Brian White, a North Carolina Republican said in a magazine interview that despite their different opinions, he supports Obama wholeheartedly, to a point of door to door campaigning. He says, “I’ve never been this excited about a candidate” (Dean 41). And about Republican candidates, “there just wasn’t one that appealed to me” (41). Obama himself has commented on his trend of unity. Journalist Eric Johnson wrote:

“Obama said he considers himself an American first, rather than primarily a black man. He also doesn’t distinguish between black patriotism and white patriotism, but he does see a difference in how each group has experienced America… Obama believes his candidacy can spark an open, honest dialogue about race in America. He believes he might be able to help change the racial dialogue, or lack thereof, and the way America deals with race”.

His strangely effective call to unity is unmatched by any of the other presidential candidates and the way he shares his visions and hope for America, the masses find inspiring.


The video succeeds greatly in showing diversity of supporters- people from Deep South Texas and Dallas, young people to old people; black people, Latinos, and white people; teachers and college students. Obviously, this was just an ad, so time to present material was very limited, but I think that more of his views should have been presented along with the thoughts of supporters, regardless of agreement or disagreement.


Senator Barrack Obama’s campaign for President has brought millions together, uniting under his front for nurturing America. Whatever the outcome, this election year will definitely be interesting, and no matter your political attitudes, Senator Obama will be one candidate to look out for.

Works Cited
“Barrack Obama on Tough Questions” The Oprah Winfrey Show. 26 Dec, 2006. LexisNexis Academic. HERMES. San Antonio Community College, San Antonio. 26 Mar. 2008.
Dean, Jamie. “Feet on the Ground.” World Magazine 12/19 Jan, 2008: 38-43
Gomez, Brandon. Personal interview, 20 Mar. 2008.
Johnson, Eric. “Exclusive: Obama on Reverend, Race and When He Was Ashamed For His Own Community.” ABC News 18 March 2008. 26 March 2008. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=4472576
Lakoff, George. Metaphor, Morality, and Politics. Talmage, Ca: Webster's World of Cultural Democracy, 1995.
Tumulty, Karen. "Obama Finds His Moment." Time 10 Dec 2007: 38-45.

[Maggie]

WoW!!! Before i read your paper,(even though i got a sneak peak when proof reading), i jotted down the things that i found interesting about the video.i.e. the young girl who thought that Obama has brought people together to work for a common goal and republicans who support the Obama campaign. What undoubtedly got my attention was the fact that all I wrote down was covered in detail in your paper. (I guess great minds think alike. hee, hee!) Great correlation with Lackoff's ideas and the message of the video. Structure was awesome and i feel like your paper and mine are very similar in that we both target the same metaphors with very similar interpretations of it. I really liked how you opened the body of the paper by discussing what Lackoff's metaphors mean and how it pertains to your paper. This definitely gives a heads up to the audience that is unfamiliar with Lackoff's work. I really enjoyed your video and the great paper that aided in explaining it.

[ashley]

I like the way you describe the video, very nice. It is true that Obama seems to fit into the nurturing father role and that he has nurturance as empathy for others. Iliked that you touched on the fact that obama is careful not to say i, but he uses the words we and you more often to appeal to the public. He tries to be nurturing instead of strict. He tries to unify america more than any other candidate. I thought you used Lakoffs ideas very well and your paper ended up being really good.

[Charles A. Fimple]

Good Job! I really liked the political advertisement of Obama, because it made me feel a sense of Texas Pride. I would agree that Obama would be classified as the nurturing parent model. He is promising protection, better economics for our country, and a command to get everyone involved in the government and make sure changes are happening. I like the example Morality as Nurturance. Obama has purposed that college should be affordable and he would like to great a federal fund giving college students a $4000.00 in return the college student must provide some community service. This also shows that the children have to be responsible and the parent is teaching responsibility and duty. Another metaphor used is Morality as Social Nurturance which was a good choice, too. This metaphor showed that Obama is part of a group which is the US and he is part of it too and just not the leader. He gets people involved in the government which teaches social awareness and social responsibility. He stands for the American Goal which is to be educated and be the best that we can be and that we are involved in our own government just as democracy was intended to do so.

[Hilary Franceschini]

Yay, I'm really glad that people liked my paper- I was so unsure about this one... Its looks as though I got the structure right, and I'm glad that my Lakoff citations coralated well with my paper. Thanks so much, guys!

[Ricardo Lesmes]

I like how you analyze interviews with Obama supporters and explain their relationships with lakoff’s ideas. For example:
The first, and most interesting, is pointed out by Linda Curtis, founder of the political organization Independent Texans. She says, “I don’t think he ever really uses the word much ‘I’. He uses the word ‘we’, ‘you’.” She notices that his speaking reflects the thought that Obama thinks about the interests of the nation as a whole much more than furthering his own interests. Lakoff says identifies that nurturing “parents develop close bonds with children and teach them empathy and responsibility towards others and toward society… The obedience of children comes out of love and respect for parents, not out of fear of punishment.”

I had liked to copy your method and some of your ideas.

[Justine_GN]

it is the first great essay i ever read about obama. I am not really interested in politics, thats why I do not care about whoever win this election , either. But your essay makes to change my mind. I like your quotes and ideas to use the metaphor. Morality as Social Nurturance. yup, morality is not only a key in a society day by day, but also plays an important role in goverment system, especially the President- who has been operating the govt machine. The one who has moral voice, moral thoughts will absolutely acts morally .
YOU GOT IT!