Boya Li

Prof Butler
Midterm Project Part 3
February 15 2015
To Smith:
The 2016 Presidential election is coming. In order to be a good prepare for this
election as a candidate, I am going to analyze the 2012 presidential election. President
Barack Obama scored 332 to 206 victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in
the 2012 presidential election. It was very difficult for Mr. Obama to win a second
term because he had to face and beat the history. Due to the fact that slow economic
growth and high unemployment in Obamas first term, Romney forecast that to focus
on Obamas failure and weak economy is the key to win the election. The Romney
campaign believed that people would blame presidents troubles on economy and
unemployment, and the voting turnout among of various groups would be
dramatically lower in 2012. However, they was totally wrong on almost all counts. On
the contrary, Barack Obama maintained popular for everyone, even for those who
think he was not doing the good job on the economy. The group of young, urban
dwellers, woman, racial, and ethnic minorities voted in high number for Obama.
Moreover, another important factor was ground game in the election. And Obama
team had much more effective influence in the large population states than Romney
team. Therefore, I will summarize the affect of demographics, political, campaign
video, and media campaign in the 2012 presidential election.
How demographics affect voting
According to the income, education, age, gender, race, and ethnicity, voting in the
United States is having the abundant variation. All of those factors affect voting
behavior. This means some kinds of people might have more representation than
others, and they may put more attention of what government does and participate
more in the political life.
For the people who with high-than-average income and more formal education
belong to politically active people. The college-educated people are much more likely
to vote than people have less education. Also, those citizens with lower income are
not willing to contact official and participate voting. Comparing with the past, black
people and whites voted become nearly equally. Both non-Hispanic whites and black
become second big part of voting behind whites. Moreover, the number of voting in
Latinos has increased in recent year, but it still stay in low percentage. Voting in Asian
Americans also have a low percentage. About the tendency of age, turnout was
increased with the growth of age. The oldest groups of eligible voters are much more
than the younger voter. In addition, woman voter become nearly equal, even a little
higher than man voter.
According to the fact above, I will analyze two states population which are Colorado
and Virginia in order to win in those states.
1) Colorado
The Median Household Income in Colorado is $58,433, and the percentage below
poverty level is 13.2%. We know that the people who have less income would not to

vote according to the tendency. And the percentage of poverty level in Colorado quite
high. Thus, we can put more effort on the propaganda in Colorado. Perhaps we could
add some site to help those poverty and offer a free lunch. They probably are willing
to vote. For the population of education above Secondary and Post Secondary is
90.2% and below is 9.8%. The reason why people who have high education would
like to vote is because they have more knowledge about politics and more confidence
about their ability to affect political life. The percentage of low education not too high
in this states. Thus, all we need to do is to make sure as much as those people can
participate in voting. We can make a big influence about the benefit of participate in
political life in the universities and companies in order to attract more people to vote.
Also, giving some helps to those with low education if possible. The population of
white is 84%, African American is 4.0%, Asian is 2.8%, some other race is 4.7%, and
American Indian and Native Alaskan is 1%. According to the data, the mostly race
and ethnicity is white. Second big parts are African American and other race. This
means the main task in Colorado is to encourage more whites to vote since they are
identity the most of voting. In addition, the population of age from 20-34 is 21.6%,
among male is 22.35%, and female is 21%; the age from35-54 is 28.1%, among male
is 28.2% and female is 27.8%; the age from 55-69 is 16%, among male is 15.6% and
female is 16.5%; the age above 70 is 7.6%, among male is 6.4%, and female is 8.6%.
This set of data shows that population of younger are the most and male and female
are nearly equal. Therefore, we can do more propaganda about registration and voting
procedures through internet and TV. Thus, younger might get more chances to
comprehend voting.
2) Virginia
The Median Household Income in Virginia is $63,907, and the percentage below
poverty level is 11.3%. The median household income is high and percentage of
poverty is among a big part. This means the level of consumption is high, so those
people who are poverty will have less active to care about politics. Thus, perhaps we
can raise the low-income subsidies to them and make them put more attention on
political life. The population of education above Secondary and Post Secondary is
87.5% and below is 12.5%. This means lower than college-education people still
having a lot. We can offer the special line and website to show voting process to them
and lower the standards of registration requirement because the big reason to stop
them voting is more trouble by the requirement. The population of white is 69.5%,
African American is 19.4%, Asian is 5.7%, some other race is 2.2%, and American
Indian and Native Alaskan is 0.3%. According to the data, there is a big number of
Africa American except white. This means we need to put more benefit for Africa
American in order to get their support . We can offer more job opportunities for them.
Also, Asian is the second big parts we need to focus on. We can treat them equally as
the white voter. Thus, they are willing to vote. In addition, the population of age from
20-34 is 20.8%, among male is 10.5%, and female is 10.3%; the age from35-54 is
29.1%, among male is 14.3% and female is 14.8%; the age from 55-69 is 16%, among
male is 7.7% and female is 8.3%; the age above 70 is 8.1%, among male is 3.3%, and
female is 4.8%. We can see that the most population upon 35-54 and 20-34. Thus, we

still need to having more propaganda in university and companies in order to let them
get familiar with registration. According to the tendency of woman and man voter
become nearly equal, we dont need to worry too much about gender in Virginia
because the percentage for both male and female are almost same.
Obama and Romneys Media Campaign
Media becomes very popular in nowadays. Thus, social media also a powerful
weapon for the presidential election. The reason why Obama won the election during
the 2012 presidential election is because he was doing very successful on social
media. He spent much more money on doing social media than Romney did. Social
media is a great via for presidential candidate to enhance popularity. Also, it is a very
convenient way for people to see president candidates efforts and great thought
through internet. Just like Obamas speech is very famous because of the working on
Facebook, Tweeting, Tumblring, and so on. Thus, people can see it easily at
everywhere by phone or computer. In addition, social media can enhance the
individual influence. Social media can help those candidate who were defeated keep
reputation. However, although social media have a big influence to enhance peoples
attention very fast, it still can show any mistakes that candidate made at the same
time. Therefore, in my opinion, although we can not ignore the disadvantage that
social media bring to us, the benefits it has are much more than detriments. From the
consequences that Obama and Romney had, it is a evidence that Obamas campaign
knew the importance of social media and it obviously worked. I also recommend that
to spend more money on social media and have a professional and powerful media
campaign.
Campaign videos to show why Obama is successful on social media
1) Obama
According to the commercial 2012 Obama VS. Romney and President Obama
Election Day is Almost Over So Get Out There and Vote, I can feel that Obama put a
lot of effort on it. I can hear Obamas voice is very confident and determined. Also,
the background sounds is very effective to foil Obamas voice. The reason why
Obama is so confident is because he already spent a lot of money on it, so he knows
the producer would make the best one. The fact is that they are the effective
commercials because of the sounds, Obamas voice, imagines. I will have strongly
agreement with Obama since I finished to watch it. Another fact makes Obamas ad is
successful is they are all shows active and hopeful to the people. Thus, I am willing to
believe and trust him that he can make the economy better and figure out the high
unemployment. Therefore, if we want to make the ad more effective, we need to
spend money on in order to have a good production to make the ad. We need to make
it more active also.
2) Romney
According to the commercial Strong America and 5 Reasons To Vote For Mitt
Romney, I feel that his ad is simple. I can not see Romney directly on the video
instead of I only can hear and see his words from fart of his speech. Thus, I cant feel
his good faith because almost every sentence was speak out by another deep male
voice. I will feel that it might be not his opinion or thoughts and it is from anyone

else. Because the rough background sound, imagine, and Romneys voice those two
ad are not effective to me. In addition, one ad all states that how Obama is so failure
on military and economy. All this negative effects let me feel bad and dont want to
continue see it. Therefore, as the bad model, we need to put more positive information
on the video and do it more careful to make the ad effective.
All in all, our purpose is to get more votes on the all battleground states. Thus, we
need to do more research about population in each states and analyze how to treat
people in those different states in order to get more votes from them. In addition, we
need to notice that how is media campaign important to the presidential election.
Thus, we need to get good prepare on social media. Finally, we can learn that we need
to put more positive aspect on commercial in order to make it more effective.
I hope that this letter can help you. The best wishes for you on the 2016 Presidential
Election.
Sincerely,
Boya Li
Citation:
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Income. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available
:http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Poverty Level. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau.
Available:http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Education. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau.
Available:http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Race. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Age & Sex. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau.
Available:http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml
?src=CF
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Income. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Poverty Level. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Education. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Race. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Age & Sex. ONLINE. 2013. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF
The Christine Science Monitor. Election 2012: 12 reasons Obama won and Romney
lost Online, NOVEMBER 7, 2012 Linda Feldmann Available:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/1107/Election-2012-12-reasonsObama-won-and-Romney-lost/Enough-of-an-economic-recovery