Obama y el 'ethos' de su campaña

Una segunda lectura a la entrevista de quien fuera el héroe anónimo de la campaña de Barack Obama, su Director Campaña, David Plouffe, me ha llevado a reflexionar sobre el espíritu que primó siempre en su organización, desde el comienzo hasta el final (y espero que lo continúe durante su ejercicio presidencial): Me refiero al "ethos" de su campaña.

Ethos significa "hábito, carácter o modo de ser" que va incorporando en el hombre a lo largo de su existencia. Es la ética o las normas que rigen que una organización, tal como existen en las corporaciones o sociedades comerciales, y también, en el gobierno.

Primero, veamos, en sus propias palabras, lo que constituyó el éxito de esta campaña:

We had three things that helped us run a very good campaign, and I think this wasn't the case for Clinton or McCain. One, we had a consistent message. What was our slogan the entire primary? "Change we can believe in". We adjusted slightly for the general - Change we need". That didn't change. That was boring to the press, but that consistency, I think, wore well with voters. And we didn't have meetings every day about how to change our message. We had an electoral strategy, and the primary contest goal was to try to do well in the early states, and win delegates, in the general to play on the big map. We never adjusted that. And third is we didn't have that internal tension and in-fighting, so we could just focus on doing our damn jobs every day, and executing at a high level. And you're right. I've worked in a lot of campaigns and they've been great experiences, but this was by far the most collegial environment that I've worked in, and it was a real pleasure to go to work every day, and we just had a sense of mision. And that can't be overstated. There weren't a lot of closed doors where people were complaining and we were a unit. And once we made a decision, we had a decision, and no one second-guessed it.

Segundo, ¿cuál era el 'ethos' de la campaña?

I think partially the types of people that worked in this. I don't think many of us would've worked in another presidential campaign, it's not what were looking to do. We were motivated by him (Obama). I think being in Chicago helped. I think Obama, and secondarily me, set a tone that we're not going to abide a bunch of internal fighting, we're not going to abide talking about our business to the outside world, and we're going to be strong in our opinions but we're going to respect decisions. And that was just the ethos of the organization and it made it much more effective that I think some of our opponents' campaigns for that reason.

La campaña de Obama tiene lecciones muy importantes para los políticos dominicanos. En la mayoría de los casos, hay muchas debilidades e impera el individualismo, no la visión de conjunto, o mejor dicho, el espíritu de cuerpo, tan necesario para alcanzar la victoria.