World, Don’t You Worry
Barack Obama lives by brands, from his white sox cap to his Harvard Law connections to his campaign's rising-road logo. In 2008 he became a global brand—a "tangible, visual articulation of a 'thought style'," as marketing guru Jonah Disend puts it.
Having won as one, the president-elect is now busy branding his administration with big-time political and business names that are products of big-time institutions—the Ivy League, the Marine Corps, the Fed. If he has a "thought style" right now it's not "change we can believe in" but, he has to hope, "rock-solid competence."
It will soon fall to Obama to restore the world's shattered confidence in the United States—in its ability to govern itself, revitalize its economy and lead the planet. Without that confidence, investors foreign and domestic will remain reluctant to plunge back into the American market. The consensus of the financial experts is that there is perhaps $3 trillion in cash sitting on the sidelines, much of that money in sovereign wealth funds in China, the Persian Gulf and Scandinavia. "We need a lot of that money back here," says Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. "By hiring and associating with well-known, well-respected figures, Obama is saying to investors: It's safe to come back. America knows what it's doing."
Some of these figures are known quantities in Congress—they are former members, even—which means they can do their own political heavy lifting on the Hill, saving Obama time as well as husbanding his clout. In all, they fall into three categories:
Ingredient brands. "These are the kind that are 'inside' another brand and help bolster it," says Haden Edwards, a New Hampshire marketer. Examples: "Intel Inside," NutraSweet. The equivalent in Obama's administration will be Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the soon-to-be chief of staff and taskmaster of the Hill. Tim Geithner, the New York Fed chief nominated for Treasury secretary, is well known to the inside players of world finance.
Driver brands. "These are leaders in their field, and they influence what goes on across their market," says Edwards. General Motors used to be an example; Microsoft remains one. The analogue here is Hillary Clinton, half of a global, and internationally revered, American brand. In the campaign, Obama didn't praise the Clinton economic record often; now he wants to take advantage of it for planetary advertising and marketing purposes.
Legacy brands. "These are respected for their longevity and for the trust they have built up with consumers over many years," says Edwards. In business it's Procter & Gamble or Colgate-Palmolive. On Obama's team, think of Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman; Robert Gates, the holdover at the Pentagon; and Gen. James Jones, a 6-foot-5 Marine who fought in Vietnam, served in Europe and will be national-security adviser.
Some of the unknown policy tyros and campaign diehards hoping to get in on the ground floor if Obama won now find themselves hardly in the building. "We are getting layered by all of the people who have been around politics forever," one complained to me (anonymously, so as not to hurt what chances there may be). But Obama seems to have concluded that, from every direction, he needs help boosting the global brand he's most concerned about these days: it's green and off-white with old-fashioned numerals and an engraved portrait of George Washington front and center.
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Howard Fineman is Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief. He is the author of "Living Politics," a column that began on MSNBC.COM and Newsweek.com and that now also appears in the print magazine. An award-winning reporter and writer, Fineman also is an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, appearing regularly on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and "TODAY." The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has appeared as well in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Republic. His 2008 national best-selling book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," was released in paperback by Random House in the spring of 2009.
One of the nation's leading political reporters, Fineman has interviewed every major presidential candidate from (then-vice president) George H.W. Bush in 1985 to (then senator) Barack Obama early and often in the 2008 campaign cycle. His current work focuses on the Obama Administration and its top officials, as well as on Congress and politics throughout the country. Although based in Washington, Fineman travels widely in the U.S. and has covered politics and other events in 49 of the 50 states.
Fineman's work has produced many milestones and awards. A cover story in November 2001 featured President George W. Bush's first extensive interview after 9/11. Another cover, "Bush and God," was part of a series of articles that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. His reporting has helped Newsweek win many honors from the Magazine Publishers Association and the American Journalism Review. Other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In 2006 he received the Alumni Award from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As a reporter and writer, Fineman ranges widely. Besides campaign-year covers, other projects have included: race and politics, the impact of digital technology on society, the influence of Hollywood on politics, the rise of the religious right and of conservative talk radio. He has interviewed business leaders such as George Soros, Bill Gates, Steve Case and Robert Rubin and entertainment figures such as Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda and Jay Leno.
Although now under exclusive television contract to NBC, Fineman over the years has appeared on major public affairs shows, such as Nightline, Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose and the NewsHour. He was a regular panelist on Washington Week in Review on PBS (1983-95) and on CNN's Capital Gang Sunday (1995-98). He worked with Ted Koppel on Nightline specials, and has been a guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report."
A native of Pittsburgh, Fineman began his career at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named chief political correspondent in 1984, deputy Washington bureau chief in 1993, senior editor in 1995 and senior Washington correspondent and columnist in 2008.
Fineman holds an A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Colgate, an M.S. in journalism from Columbia and a J.D. from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. His legal education included a year as a visiting student at the Georgetown University Law Center. He received Watson and Pultizer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, and has traveled to more than 40 countries, among them China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey and the West Bank Palestinian Territories.
Fineman is married to Amy L. Nathan, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. They live in Washington with their two children, Meredith and Nicholas.
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