I wrote this paper about Barack Obama's leadership during a 2019 class on historical leaders. I discovered it recently and decided to add it to my collection of leadership articles in this blog. (The APA style is from the 6th edition of the manual.)
Barack Obama’s Presidential Election: A Matter of Race and Charisma
by Ipatia K. Apostolides
Oct. 19, 2019
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In 2009, Barack Hussein Obama II became the first African American to be elected as 44th president of the United States of America (USA). Several factors contributed to Obama achieving this momentous, historical election: being born in 1961, during the Civil Rights movement where several Black leaders such as Martin Luther King paved the way for the rights of the Blacks; his mixed-race – his white mother married an African from Kenya; he worked as a community organizer in the black neighborhoods of the South Side of Chicago; he studied law at Harvard; he wrote Dreams of My Father, a memoir, which brought him national attention; he became a Senator; he utilized the Internet to help his campaign; and he used his charisma (Green & Roberts, 2015). This paper will briefly go over these factors listed here and then narrow the focus to his race and charisma in helping him win the presidential election. His race played an essential role in his career path. By the time his presidential campaign rolled around in 2007, he was not only reaching out to Blacks for votes, but to the millennials who consisted not only of Whites and Blacks, but Asians, and college students, with the help of the Internet and social media, and they were open to him. His charisma also played a significant factor in his success. According to Takala, Tunttu, Lamsa, and Virtanen (2013), Obama’s charismatic leadership style varied according to the context and environment so that he was able to encompass all four archetypes of charismatic leadership: father, hero, savior, and king. This allowed him to succeed in influencing a significant number of followers.
HISTORY
Several books have been written about Barack Obama and his family (Mendell, 2007; Maraniss, 2012; Obama, 1995). Due to the page limitations of this paper, the author will briefly touch upon his familial history before moving on. Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was white and from Kansas. She loved to read and was academically gifted; while still in high school, she was offered early admission to the University of Chicago (Mendell, 2007, p. 25), but her father forbade her. Ann was an idealist and a dreamer and ignored the flaws in humankind (p. 26). Later, when the family moved to the city of Honolulu, she enrolled at the University of Hawaii, where she met Barack Hussein Obama Sr. in a Russian language class (p. 27). Barack’s father was born in Kenya to a prominent elder and farmer. He was also academically gifted - he became the first African exchange student in 1959 at the University of Hawaii (p. 29). The couple eloped, and Barack Obama Jr. was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii. His father accepted a scholarship to study at Harvard but did not have the money to take his family with him (Mendell, 2007, p. 28). His parents divorced in 1964 (Barack Obama), and he never really knew his father. Then his mother married an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro, and had a daughter, Maya, by him. As a result, Barack moved to Indonesia with his mother, where he lived, learned the language, and was exposed to the Muslim religion. She also homeschooled him during a part of this time (Barack Obama). Obama said this about his mother “…she was just a very sweet person…and would be your biggest cheerleader and your best friend and had sort of complete confidence in the fact that you were special in some fashion” (Mendell, 2007, p. 24). He also told a grassroots women’s group this about his mother: “Everything that is good about me, I think I got from her” (p.24).
After living in Indonesia for four years, Obama returned to Hawaii and lived with his maternal grandparents Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, while his mother visited back and forth; with the help of his grandparents, he spent eight years at Punahou, a private, prestigious college preparatory school in Hawaii, from fifth grade to graduation (Barack Obama). His father visited him once, in 1971, and in 1982, he was killed in a car accident (Barack Obama).
Coming from a mixed-race family, with absent parents, and having an unusual name were issues that Obama faced growing up. According to Maraniss (2007), “Leaving and being left were repeating themes of Barry Obama’s young life” (p.278), and it taught him to adjust, as well as to search for order and home (p.279).
Upon graduating from Punahou, Obama attended Occidental College, a small liberal arts college in California, from 1979 to 1981. In 1981, Obama gave his first public political speech in a protest on campus about the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela (Maraniss, 2012, p. 377). Then he applied to Columbia University, NY, and was accepted. When his friends asked him why he wanted to leave, he said, “I just need a bigger pond to swim in” (p.386). Columbia was still an all-male campus, and there was not enough housing, so Obama took an apartment near the campus. He studied political science with a specialty in international relations and English literature and graduated in 1983.
After graduating from Columbia, Obama was intent on helping the Black communities; he worked in the South Side of Chicago as a community organizer with the Developing Communities Project (DCP). The South Side was the “intellectual center of black nationalism” (Lizza, 2007). Obama’s work focused on helping the unemployed, poor blacks fight the city for jobs and asbestos removal. His teachers were schooled by the radical social scientist Saul Alinksy who studied at the University of Chicago and condoned the use of agitation or making someone angry enough to take action to change their terrible plight; Alinsky was influenced by the idea that “people could change their lives by changing their surroundings” which led him to turn “community organization” into something controversial (Lizza, 2007).
Obama’s employer, Marty Kaufmann, insisted that he “move toward the centers of people’s lives (Obama, 1995, p.188); so Obama interviewed people in the South Side, listening to their stories and sharing his own; he worked with community leaders and the black churches, but it wasn’t easy. For example, they tried to start a job bank through the help of a state university located in the suburbs, but the computers didn’t work right, and it was plagued with many errors and essentially failed (p. 167). There were many such setbacks, such as having a difficult time in uniting the black churches that were independent and competed for followers (Mendell, 2007, p. 68); yet Obama considered the four years he worked as a community organizer as being the “best education” he ever received (Lizza, 2007) and he went on to explain “because it reminded me that you could look at a map but that’s not the actual territory” (Mendell, 2007, p.68).
In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School. During his first year, he won the position as the editor of the Harvard Law Review through his grades and a writing competition (Kantor, 2007), and this gained him national attention; consequently, he received a contract and advancement by Random House, and in 1995, published his memoir, Dreams of my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Obama, 1995). Obama’s message has always been about change, and in his memoir, he stated, “Change won’t come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll organize black folks. At the grass roots. For change” (Lizza, 2007).
Meanwhile, during these years at Harvard, Obama joined the Black Law Students Association, where he delivered speeches in the manner of a Baptist Minister and which were “more memorable for style than substance” said Mr. Mack, a black Harvard student who knew him (Kantor, 2007). During this time, Obama met his wife, Michelle Robinson, a Harvard Law graduate. Also, during this time, Obama’s mother attended graduate school at the University of Hawaii on a full scholarship; and received her Ph.D. in 1992, but died three years later, in 1995, from cancer at the age of 52.
From 1992 to 2004, Obama worked as a civil rights attorney and also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he had an opportunity to teach a diverse group of students, and it gave him experience in speaking in front of groups of people (Maraniss, 2012); and from 1997 to 2004, Obama served in the Illinois Senate (Barack Obama).
POLITICAL CAREER
The opportunity to run for Senator was the next challenge. David Axelrod, a highly regarded political consultant, helped Obama turn from a little-known state senator into a serious competitor for the US Senate (Mendell, 2007, p. 163). Axelrod’s excellent experience in selecting personal life stories of candidates and composing campaign scripts for the public (p. 165) helped propel Obama’s political career forward.
Obama received national attention once more in 2004 when he gave the Democratic National Convention keynote address (Barack Obama). Obama had a knack of associating with the little guy. That day, just before his keynote speech, he turned around and spoke to his photographer, Katz, who was also a golfer and told him, “I’m gonna go out there and sink this putt,” which impressed Katz that Obama could relate to him in such a personal way at that particular moment (Mendell, 2007, 284). Stewart (2011) posits that part of Barack Obama’s influence came from his background in law and community work, and he’d often refer to the “authentic voices of the people themselves” (p. 273). This was apparently the case for the keynote speech that helped him get into the Senate (Barack Obama).
Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic Convention had taken him a year to prepare, and it had a significantly positive impact on his political career. Even though he was Black - he could have used this opportunity to speak to the Blacks in the country – his powerful message was focused on uniting America. Although he had to get used to using the teleprompter, he overcame that challenge and went on to give a successful speech, where he said, “There’s not a liberal American and a conservative America - there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latin America and Asian America, there’s the United States of America…We are one people” (p. 284). Obama’s deliberate choice of words helped seek interdependence and interconnectivity (Stewart, 2011).
Another influence that helped in Obama’s success was the use of the Internet. According to McGirt (2008), tapping into the Internet and using social media like Facebook helped Obama move forward in marketing his campaign which focused on the millennials (18 - 29 years old). The millennials held a postmodern worldview, and that is how Obama connected with them; they challenged authority, attacked conventional wisdom, tolerated ambiguity, accepted diversity, and built constructive reality (Green & Roberts, 2015). The “Yes We Can” message created by others, which cost the campaign nothing, became viral on the Internet (p. 3). Keith Reinhard (DDB Worldwide) states that “Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand: New, different, and attractive. That’s as good as it gets” (cited in McGirt, 2008). On the website of mybarackobama.com, “Obamiacs can create their own blogs around platform issues, send policy recommendations directly to the campaign, set up their own mini fund-raising site, organize an event…” (p.3).
RACE
When he defeated Senator John McCain to become the 44th president of the United States in 2009, Obama became the first Black to hold such a high position of power. Much had been done by his Black predecessors - Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Hosea Williams, and other Black leaders - who had entered the political arena (McIlwain, 2010, p. 159) and paved the way for Obama through the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s. According to Smith (1996) and Walters and Smith (1999), the civil rights model of leadership emphasizes charisma, collective participation, and racial group interests (cited in McIlwain, p. 159) and utilizes the persuasive power of speech. Yet, Obama did not settle for only the civil rights model but straddled both the classical model of leadership, which emphasized experience and the civil rights model of Black leadership.
A similar viewpoint came from journalist Michael Headerle (2008), who described the presidential contest as a “race about race” (cited in Block, 2011, p. 424). A line of reasoning that Block (2011) proposes is that guilt among White voters or prejudicial attitudes among Blacks were the major motives for Obama support. The reason behind this was studied by Steele (1988, 2006, 2007b) who purported that Whites who backed Obama desired absolution for the sin of slavery while Black Obama supporters wanted some form of retribution (cited in Block, p. 438-439).
Influenced by his connection to the African American community, Obama utilized devices in his speech that were central to African American discourse, such as narratives, imagery, and alliteration (Stewart, 2011, p.272). Another connection to the African American community occurred when Obama was sworn in as a Senator and became the only Senator member to join the Congressional Black Caucus (Barack Obama). This caucus was made up of African American members of the United States Congress whose goals were pertinent to African Americans and those in a similar situation:“closing the achievement and opportunity gaps in education, assuring quality health care for every American, focusing on employment and economic security, ensuring justice for all, retirement security for all Americans, increasing welfare funds, and increasing equity in foreign policy” (Barack Obama).
CHARISMA
Another critical factor that influenced the outcome of Obama’s political career was his charisma. His charisma influenced and attracted many followers that helped him along the way. According to Green (2009), Obama’s Republican opponent Senator John McCain was known for his ‘take charge’ style and decisiveness. In contrast, Obama was labeled a charismatic leader who strived to build bridges and not burn them (cited in Green & Roberts, 2015), and it appears that this was what the people of the USA wanted to hear.
Researchers Takala, Tanttu, Lamsa, and Virtanen (2013) also labeled Obama as a charismatic leader, and they defined charisma as a personality trait (Brown, 2011) from the great man leadership theory (cited in Takala et al., p. 151). In charismatic leadership, personal attributes such as physical appearance, energy, trustworthiness, perseverance, voice, and rhetorical skills are essential (p. 151). Obama had all these characteristics.
According to Steyrer (1998), there are four archetypes of charismatic leadership: father, hero, savior, and king. The archetype of the father or paternalistic charisma embodies strength, dependability, demandingness, protectiveness, and even moralism. The archetype of the hero or heroic charisma relates to a combination of strength and superiority, with “good and evil juxtaposed as in heroic tales” (cited in Takala et al., 2013, p. 152). The archetype of the savior or missionary charisma in leadership is innovative and able to make changes which is called for in times of major crisis or change (p.153). Finally, the archetype of the king or majestic charisma is wise, self-confident, peaceful, reliable, and beyond all reproach, and nurtures the people (p. 153).
Given the four archetypes of charismatic leadership: father, hero, savior, and king, Takala et al. (2013) purport that different social contexts gave rise to various archetypes of charisma in Obama’s leadership style. In other words, Takala et al. (2013) suggest that Obama had a little bit of all the archetypes of charismatic leadership: the father (contexts of poverty and famine), the hero (contexts of international politics and economic and health care reform), the savior (context of giving hope to the world’s political and economic crisis), and king (context of past injustices and fights for human rights) (p. 163).
According to Edwards (2012), Barack Obama was about change, which was the center of his campaign strategy. The economic crisis at that time was an opportunity and catalyst for action rather than a constraint (p.10). “Public support is a critical political resource” (Edwards III, 2012), yet moving the public to respond to a president’s appeals is challenging to do (p.6).
In the first months of his presidential campaign, Obama brought up suggestions for change. He challenged audiences to work on behalf of a greater good and not spend their lives pursuing material possessions (p. 203). In addition, he emphasized bipartisanship from the beginning, and in the process, was labeled as a ‘centrist’, which means having moderate political views (Barack Obama). He reiterated his push for change on the night of his election, when he stated: “Republicans and Democrats are going to have to work together” (Edwards, 2012, p.137).
During Obama’s campaign, the USA had entered into a recession; and a global financial crisis had risen from low-quality mortgage-backed securities that were backed by subprime mortgages in the US. The prior administrations of Clinton and Bush had “embraced the so-called Washington Consensus, a policy agenda of fiscal austerity, central-bank autonomy, deregulated markets, liberalized capital flows, free trade and privatization (Peschek, 2011, p. 431). There was a dissatisfaction in the country and the public was ready for change (p. 433). The recession that started December 2007 lasted for two years (The Recession, 2012).
In 2008, Obama, a member of the Democratic Party, won the presidential election with Joe Biden his vice-president. However, much needed to be done after Obama was elected president: the unemployment rate was 7.3%, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the US government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Barack Obama). Thus, due to the scope of this paper, these and other challenges during Obama’s (2009-2017) presidency need to be reserved for another discussion.
CONCLUSION
Several factors influenced Obama’s path to becoming the president of the United States: the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s that paved the way; his mother and his mixed-race (Mendell, 2007; Obama, 1995; Maraniss, 2012); his community organizing work (Lizza, 2007; Mendell, 2007; Maraniss, 2012); his Harvard law education and teaching (Barack Obama); his memoir Dreams from My Father (Obama, 1995) that helped him get national recognition; becoming a Senator (Barack Obama); using the Internet for his campaign (Green & Roberts 2015); and his charisma (Takala et al, 2013).
The difficult economic crisis of that time also helped Obama win because his focus was about “change” which seemed to be exactly what the people wanted to hear. This feeds into the idea that Obama’s savior archetype of charismatic leadership (Takala et al, 2013), where he was able to call for change during the economic crisis that the USA was experiencing, was an important factor in his political success. In addition, his use of different archetypical charismatic leadership styles: father, hero, savior, and king, (Takala et al) gave him opportunities to match his style contextually to the environment. By promising change, his messages were not only for Blacks, but also for Whites, Asians, and others, because he gave hope to those who were out of jobs, unable to pay their bills, and struggling with poverty, regardless of their race.
In addition, a recurring theme in Obama’s public rhetoric was to masterfully attach himself to a larger ideal. According to Mendell (2007), during Obama’s campaign his policy positions were to the left, but he offered them in a way that made him sound almost conservative. In other words, his message was for both liberals and conservatives, and he has been labeled as a “centrist” (Barack Obama). For example, he would tell stories of committed parents and communities raising children, and depending on his audience, might include the higher role and responsibility of the government to assist parents in their struggles (p.248).
Overall, everything fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle in Obama’s rise to the presidential campaign, one piece at a time, and he wasn’t alone; his charisma influenced and attracted countless of followers that helped him along the way (Green & Roberts, 2015). However, once Obama gained his presidency, the author questions if his race and charisma were enough to maintain both a strong leadership role and bipartisanship in the coming difficult years that would pose challenges requiring shifting to a more situational leadership style, which is a topic for another paper.
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