Online Public Relations Thoughts

There are times when everything seems to conspire against a message you are sending. The President is in one of those moments. The Congressional Budget Office and the White House both predict massive deficits at the very time the President wants to get an expensive healthcare bill through Congress. To top that, Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the most powerful voices for healthcare reform has died without anyone to take his place immediately. Add to this the continuing turmoil Congressmen are facing in town halls throughout the US, and you have a perfect storm of opposition against healthcare reform. The challenge for Obama is to get heard through overwhelming noise in the political landscape. Even with the President's bully pulpit, he is having a hard time. The Democrats have proposed 500 rallies to support the healthcare bill across the country, but those may be too little and too late. Communications in the face of such resistance is a matter of persistence, search for arguments and countering charges. That is what the President is doing, but is it enough? We'll know soon.