That's right, President Obama has said he wants the Pittsburgh Steelers to defeat the Arizona Cardinals, the Cinderella story of the National Football League, according to msn.com. He also mentioned, "Other than the (Chicago) Bears, the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart." Personally, it kills me to here that because I am a huge fan of the Cardinals! Yet, I appreciate that he is willing to come out and boldly state who favors in this year's big game. I think it foreshadows the type of presidency he is going to have for the next four years. Clearly, he knew Cardinals fans were not going to like hearing it, but it shows that he is also unwavering and no wishy-washy in his decisions. That is something any person can respect. Even still, he showed that he is still diplomatic when he told the media, "I have to say, you know, I wish the Cardinals the best. You know, Kurt Warner is a great story, and he's closer to my age than anybody else on the field."
I think that this is great PR for him. I believe it shows that he has a personal side that he is willing to share with the US which is great for our public in these trying times. It reminds of me of what I learned as a senior in high school about FDR's Fireside Chats. In fact, during the pregame show, Obama also planned to participate in a live interview on NBC with Matt Lauer. It is obvious that President Obama is going to be in the spotlight for a long while with all the history behind his election, but I think he is really doing a great job of making this country feel whole again. He is even throwing a Super Bowl party!
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the invitation to watch the Super Bowl is part of the new administration's efforts to work across the political aisle, similar to his bipartisan cocktail party Wednesday night at the executive mansion.
Overall, this article does a great job of exemplifying many terms in our text, Public Relations Writing. For example, in chapter one, the text diagrams the two different publics when it comes to public relations, the internal publics and the external publics. Obama is satisfying both of these by throwing his two-cents in when it comes to the Super Bowl for the football fans of America (the external public) and by trying to create a more bipartisan government (the internal public) by hosting a Super Bowl party in hopes that,"... individuals could better get to know each other and understand where they're coming from in these legislative disagreements," Gibbs told reporters Thursday. In addition to the external and internal publics, chapter three which covers persuasion, mentions Personality and how, " As a writer, you need to remain aware of how personality characterists affect persuasibility." I think that's also very important to this article. I think by Obama going out and letting the public to get to know him a little better will help his campaign for "hope" and "change" through out his presidency. After all, it's a little easier to follow a president who follows football!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
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I agree, I would have also liked to see the Cardinals win the superbowl. Instead the Steelers did win. I think that was great that Obama was able to come out and say who he wanted to win, even if it did cause an uproar with people. It does show a sense of what he will be like as a president I feel because he will not care what people think of what he says and will speak his thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIt is awesome that President Obama told the public whom he wanted to win the Super Bowl. Earlier in the year, Obama was talking about changing the college football bowl system to a playoff format because there are many people who disagree how the system currently works. One day I was watching ESPN and they were showing Obama practicing with the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team. All of the things Obama is doing just shows how much he likes sports.
ReplyDeleteI think that having an opinion about sports is also a very smart political strategy on his part. Part of the reason former President Bush was elected to office twice was that he seemed like an average person, while the people he was running against were politicians. I think that by having an educated opinion on sports (professional and collegiate) he is relating to a majority of the voting public. Sports have become a huge part of the culture in America and by connecting himself to that physically, by practicing with the UNC Men's basketball team, and verbally, by declaring allegiances to teams, he is making himself more personable to the public.
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