Barack Obama Presents His New Re-election Campaign Slogan

Published in El País
(Spain) on 2 May 2012
by Cristina F. Pereda (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Soledad Gómez. Edited by .

Edited by Anita Dixon

Forward. If back in 2008, the candidate Barack Obama presented himself as guaranteed change, if he was surrounded by posters with the word “hope” during political meetings, four years later the message is different. The President, candidate for re-election in November, asks Americans to keep moving forward.

The video presented this week, which lasts more than seven minutes, is a reminder of the economic situation the country was facing when Obama took office. It contains a series of images of late 2008 and early 2009 which show different television presenters who narrate the economic decline, the dramatic fall in the employment rate and the feeling of crisis that the U.S. is still recovering from.

The campaign tries to seek support in the voices of the television presenters and in the familiarity of their faces to explain what state the country was in when the President took office. The U.S. was immersed in one of the most important economic recessions of the country and, according to the “Forward” motto, it was able to overcome this crisis thanks to a series of measures approved by Obama during the last three years: the health care reform, a financial rescue plan—that according to the President's campaign would have saved more than four million jobs, the end of the war in Iraq, new regulations in the financial industry and the end of discrimination against homosexuals in the U.S. Army.

And, as in any campaign video, the attack on the opposition could not be absent. "Instead of working together to lift America up, Republicans were waging a campaign to tear the President down," the narrator says while showing images of conservatives’ faces such as talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

Forward is the focus of Obama's campaign, which revolves around the figure of a president who has done everything possible to save the nation from one of the worst crises in its history. "While there's still more to do, there's been real progress because President Obama never stopped believing in us and fighting for us," says the video, which is added to a series of ads like "The Journey,” where the Democratic candidate has already written his letter for the next election.

The recording was presented through the President's channel on YouTube, coinciding with his surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he signed a post-war cooperation agreement. Although the end of this conflict is not part of the video, it makes reference to two other major achievements of Obama's administration that will also have relevance to the campaign: the death of Osama Bin Laden and the end of the war in Iraq.

In recent years, Obama's campaign has tried with the slogan "Win the Future,” but it seems to prefer a more direct and positive slogan. “Forward” also allows it to include the letter 'o' , suggesting the sun rising over the horizon, which was already used for the campaign logo in 2008.

Meanwhile, the candidate Mitt Romney has already responded to the video publication with another ad that criticizes the President's "broken promises.”


Forward. Adelante. Si en 2008 el candidato Obama se presentó como garantía de cambio, si se rodeó de carteles en sus mítines de campaña con la palabra hope (esperanza), cuatro años después el mensaje es otro. El presidente, aspirante a la reelección en noviembre, pide a los estadounidenses que sigan avanzando.

El vídeo, de más de siete minutos de duración y presentado esta semana, recuerda la situación económica en la que se encontraba el país cuando Obama llegó a la Casa Blanca a través de una colección de imágenes de finales de 2008 y principios de 2009. En ellas, diversos presentadores de televisión narran el declive económico, la dramática caída del nivel de empleo y la sensación de crisis la que Estados Unidos todavía se recupera.

La campaña de Obama ha querido apoyarse en las voces de los presentadores de televisión, en la familiaridad de sus rostros, para explicar las condiciones en las que el presidente llegó a la Casa Blanca. Estados Unidos estaba inmerso en una de las recesiones económicas más importantes en el país y, de acuerdo con el lema Forward, ha salido adelante gracias a la colección de medidas aprobadas por Obama en los últimos tres años: la reforma del sistema sanitario, un plan de rescate económico que -según la campaña del presidente- habría salvado más de cuatro millones de puestos de empleo, el final de la guerra de Irak, nuevas regulaciones en el sector financiero o el fin de la discriminación contra homosexuales en el ejército norteamericano.

Y como en todo vídeo de campaña, no falta el ataque al aspirante contrario. "En vez de trabajar para ayudar a levantar América, los Republicanos libraron una campaña para destruir al presidente", dice el narrador mientras se muestran imágenes de rostros conservadores como los presentadores Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck o Sean Hannity.

Forward será el eje de la campaña de Obama, que girará en torno a la figura de un presidente que ha hecho todo lo posible para salvar a la nación de una de las peores crisis de su historia. "A pesar de que queda mucho trabajo por hacer, hay un progreso real porque el presidente Obama nunca dejó de creer en nosotros ni de pelear por nosotros", dice el vídeo, que se une a una serie de anuncios como "El camino recorrido", donde el candidato demócrata ya hizo su carta de presentación para las próximas elecciones.

La grabación fue presentada a través del canal del presidente en el portal de vídeos YouTube y coincidiendo con el viaje sorpresa de Obama a Afganistán, donde presentó un acuerdo de cooperación para la posguerra. A pesar de que el final de este conflicto no forma parte del vídeo, sí se hace referencia a otros dos grandes logros de la presidencia de Obama y que también tendrán relevancia durante la campaña electoral: la muerte de Osama Bin Laden y el fin de la guerra de Irak.

La campaña de Obama había probado durante los últimos años con el lema "Win the Future" -ganar el futuro- pero parece haberse decantado por una consigna más directa y positiva. La marca Forward, además, permite incluir en la letra 'o' el horizonte que ya fuera el logo de la campaña de 2008.

El candidato Mitt Romney, por su parte, ya ha contestado a la publicación del vídeo de Obama con otro anuncio en el que critica "las promesas incumplidas" del presidente.
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