The thing about Obama and Noy

The thing about Obama and Noynoy is that they both campaigned and won on a platform of hope and change. And people have seen many other similarities, parallelisms that these two avant-garde leaders share. But comparison to Obama isn’t always a compliment. 

The Democrats have just lost the midterm elections, one that dealt a debilitating blow on Obama’s legislative agenda and effectively put into place this oratory-driven president’s ego two years into his presidency. The Americans are calling his bluff and demanding from him and his party the change they were promised. This widespread frustration in American leadership was, of course, pretty much expected when he won in 2008. No one—especially someone who was only catapulted into the presidency as a reaction to Bush, and not based on his own merits or track record—could ever assuage the cries of many an American who’s lost his job, his home, his everything in the midst of an economic crisis that, at present, seems to have no end.

Lesson for President Noy: Obama’s is a cautionary tale that hyped hope can turn the tide against the ‘hype-er’ in a blink of an eye. But some would argue the difference between the Philippine and American experience. Compared to the US, our economy is strong(er), investor confidence is at an all-time high, and public perception in our leadership, if surveys are to be believed, has remained rather unperturbed despite the string of gaffes we’ve seen in the early months of the Aquino presidency.

Point well taken. But we’re talking about Obama’s two years versus Aquino’s four months. Say we fast forward to two years from now, at the rate P.Noy’s people are going, do you think Filipinos will still be as happy and as confident about him then as they are now? I’m not entirely sure, though my crystal ball isn’t as optimistic.

What I do know is that Filipinos, cognizant of our weak political party system, seldom show their dissatisfaction in their leadership through midterm elections (next one set in 2013). Though Gloria Arroyo’s bets suffered from the wrath of an angry nation in 2007, Filipinos usually punish their presidents through a unique, rather immature, but still supposedly democratic way: People Power. 

“Edsa 4 a victory, Aquino steps down” isn’t a headline I would want to read. Can you imagine an Aquino being the target of a social weapon that benefited another Aquino? That would be so twisted! But we all know nothing is impossible in our country where stranger things have happened (and could still happen).

Though in the realm of possibilities, such scenario is still highly improbable, and perhaps, only real in the imagination of, say, Gloria Arroyo, who I’m sure wouldn’t mind seeing P.Noy surrender to something she survived, not once, not even twice, but so many times!

Unlike Obama, President Aquino has so many things going for him. I mentioned the promising economy, high investor confidence, and people’s support. But he also has his honesty and simplicity, the rarity of both Filipinos obviously appreciate. And so far, if we were to quantify and trace the source of whatever negative publicity the Palace and President Aquino have been getting, a safe estimate would be that 80 percent of which have been generated by his very own Communications office, the epicenter of all miscommunication. The good thing about this internal problem is that it could be fixed internally, unlike the economy which has tons of extraneous variables that affect it.

Like a cancer, when detected early, should be removed from its source (before it metastasizes to other parts of the body), so too should the Palace Communications office face a drastic, major, major overhaul. The problem of P.Noy’s miscommunicators has already been pointed out by so many people, both critics and supporters, and maybe it’s time the President yields.

Before this communications cancer takes on a life of its own and causes harm on other presidential strengths, both inherent and external, action must be done. P.Noy should be reminded of the cautionary tale that is Obama: Rhetoric, eating hotdogs in Manhattan, no wang-wang, or the promise of hope and change will never be enough for a country starving for it. We’ve gotta see it.

And the first thing he needs to change is his communications team.

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Tonight’s The Bottomline with Boy Abunda: Win na Win’s Rico J. Puno takes the hotseat and reacts to comparisons between him and Willie Revillame, and so much more. Watch it tonight after Banana Split on ABS-CBN. Replay telecast on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), Sunday, 1:30 pm. 

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