The Obama Brand

It's Tuesday evening, October 5th. I have no idea what the election results will be in 4 weeks but the Obama Brand is on my mind, so I sit and write what you are about to read:

The Obama Brand today is about line-extensions.

It is election day in the United States of America.

This is what we call a mid-term election because it is in the middle of the Presidents four year term. Every member of the House of Representatives could lose their job tonight, because their terms are two years long.

1/3 of the Senators could lose their job tonight. They are elected to 6 year terms of office.

The past two or three years have just flown by, due to the Obama Brand which gained national recognition in 2007.

The Obama Brand was the vision of Hope and Change that the Senator from Illinois, Barrack Obama used to carry him to the White House in 2008.

It was one of the most turbulent elections I've witnessed. Nearly everyone had a strong opinion and that opinion drove people to vote.

So what has happened to the Obama Brand?

We'll find out when the votes are counted.

Do we want more of the Hope and Change that the Obama Brand gave us the first two years of the Obama Presidency?

Did the Obama Brand work as a line-extension?

Odds are it didn't. Democrats are expecting losses in Congress. It's because in nearly every mid-term election the party that is not in power in the White House, gains ground.

So, the failure of the Obama Brand to break this cycle isn't the fault of the Obama Brand. It is the fault of those political strategists that followed the same pattern thinking that the Obama Brand is strong enough to break the cycle without using a different strategy.

The President has been lending his voice and support to candidates, just like previous Presidents did in the past with mostly discouraging results.

It's too late now, but I have the answer to break this "losing the mid-term" cycle.

The political parties need to stop latching onto the President as their brand. See, my Senator is being branded as a line extension of the Obama Brand, instead of as a member of the Democrat Brand.

There is a difference.

Would you buy an Obama Brand Dishwasher? Would you buy an Obama Brand lunch meat? I know it sounds silly, because I'm taking the fallacy of line-extensions to the extreme.

Just because a brand is popular doesn't mean it can apply to everything. Too bad the political strategists haven't learned this lesson.