Marketing communications folks are always preaching about the importance of messaging and for a taste of the topical, the presidential campaign thus far has been all about messaging. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the Fighter and Barack Obama is the Diplomat. Those two messages sum up the reason that the dream ticket is in fact, a nightmare. Certainly Clinton still has her vocal and loyal supporters, many of whom are women, Latinos, and those on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, as she should. Hillary Clinton has fashioned herself as a rough-and-tumble politician and after Super Tuesday, ran an effective campaign for presidency.
On the other hand, Barack Obama's campaign has been about changing the way that politics work in Washington and reaching across the aisle to Republicans and Democrats. In a word, being a united and not a divider.
The messages that each politician (one a presidential nominee and one a vice presidential wannabe) espouses should make it clear that each is wrong as the other's vice presidential or presidential nominee. We won't even get into the issue of healing the Democratic party, because while that is important, it is not what I want to talk about. My belief is that Clinton as VP to Obama's President does not make good branding sense. If we believe (as I do) that Obama's message is one of change, ending partisan politics and talking our problems out instead of fighting them out then Clinton's message of being experienced in the nuances of Washington politics and fighting to get things done then we have a slight branding issue.
If Clinton and Obama were companies that were considering merging, I would advise against it because the companies come from two vastly different ideological places. On the substantive issues, there is little on which there is a marked disagreement -- with the exception of maybe healthcare. But it comes down to an issue of brand. Because they staked their respective campaigns on their brands moreso than on substantive difference on the issues that face Americans, we have come to a crossroads. And my belief is that while many Democrats salivate over the prospect of having these two powerful politicians, it is a nightmare for the brand. It'd be like Pepsi and Coke merging. Two mega-brands that have fought each other since their existence began and now they want to play in the same sandbox together. Will the new company be Coke or will it be Pepsi? My guess is that neither would be willing to take second position to their fiercest competition as I don't think Hillary Clinton ultimately wants to either. Afterall, Clintons don't take second place.
