Elections Daily

Ingrid Cliff asked:


Here in Australia we are heading into a Federal election in the near future. Over the years both in my office bearer roles in our local Chamber of Commerce as well as in my business consulting part of my business, I have closely observed businesses on the lead-up to an election.

There are some very clear business trends that smart businesses need to know and work within. Elections also provide businesses with a money-can’t-buy education on the latest in marketing trends.

Lets start with the business trends. The most obvious is a business to government slow down - by that I mean in the lead up to an election the incumbent political party goes into caretaker mode and generally will not make any significant decisions or grant major contracts. If your business is one that relies on government contract you need to plan for this slow down to kick in at least 6 months before the scheduled election due period.

Depending on the election result, you can face a few months of transition as Ministers and senior executives swap chairs before finally having your project see the light of day again. Smart businesses never just rely on government contracts as their sole source of income and plan to share the revenue load during an election year (or at least allow for an extended holiday at that time!)

One less obvious impact is on business to business trade. Many businesses tell me that in the lead up to an election their business to business trade also dries up. The effect doesn’t appear to be limited to particular industries only.

There is no apparent logical reason for this to happen. Perhaps it just reflects the uncertainty businesses feel about election results and potential changes of government. Businesses may be choosing not to invest in new machinery, business services or new technology until after election results are clearer and they know the potential impacts on their business. All of this is purely conjecture on my part as I have yet to see any formal studies of this impact.

So how should small businesses cope with these fluctuations? You know that there will be Federal elections within certain spans of time every 3 years.

Savvy business owners factor this into their marketing plan for that particular year and offer special promotions to keep their business to business market buying at that time.

They also take advantage of the ready made marketing theme for their promotions. For example one local plumber in my area has had a banner made “Vote 1 Bell Plumbers” and then shown a ticked ballot paper style of features of his business that appears on local street poles around election time. Because it is different than the normal Vote 1 posters, people stop and look at it. What could you do along those lines to use the election theme to market your business?

The other thing elections do for small businesses is to give you a free lesson on the latest trends in marketing. Take a very close look at the major parties campaigns and dissect them for ideas and strategies that they paid hundreds of thousands to acquire.

This election is hotting up as the battle of You Tube with the Prime Minister and the opposition using You Tube as a way of promoting their election platforms. This tells businesses that they need to consider social networking sites as well as adding video streams to their marketing arsenal.

There are a whole range of new groups onto the media market where you can add a video clip to your site taken from your webcam. You don’t have to pay big $ for studio time (although it does give a better edge). Video blogs are starting to make a real presence in the blogging world.

And speaking of blogs,they have also made an appearance in this election with many candidates using blogs as a way of feeding the media and the electorate about their views. Blogs are a great tool for businesses to consider building relationships with potential clients as well as boosting your search engine rankings.

Next you need to listen to what the major candidates say. They have carefully rehearsed sound bites about their major policies. I liken this to the political version of an elevator speech where your business gets 3 minutes to sell what you do to someone when you meet them for the first time. Listen carefully to how the politicians are structuring their sound bites this election for some tips for your next elevator speech.

Smart businesses will also have seen over the past 2 elections the increase in branding of political party how to vote signs. The major parties now all specify background photo colours, fonts and layout to provide a consistent feel even though each candidate is different. It is a great technique you may want to adopt to provide a consistent theme across your diverse product range.

Take a close look at photos used in political marketing material. It gives you an instant education on how to build credibility from a photo. You will notice all major candidates are wonderfully neat with no hair out of place, immaculately groomed, exceptional make-up and generally a warm but not cheesy smile.

Check who the politicians are photographed with and in what locations. You will notice many of the photos of the smarter politicians show both men and women, and a mix of racial diversity as well as age diversity in the shots. What that does is to create instant rapport with the viewers “the politician is with people just like me so they must be OK”. What do the shots on your website and your marketing material say about what sort of clients you work with?

As yet the junk mail blizzard hasn’t started. I love election junk mail - you can get a fantastic headline swipe file from the mail as well as tips on layout and design of your copy.

However, the blizzard of politicians visiting every committee, networking group and shopping centre has started in earnest. At times the candidates outnumber the actual committee members in some local groups. But it highlights the importance of networking as a marketing strategy. I love chatting to all the local candidates to hear their views on things and to pass on my two cents worth of ideas (and forming networks of my own).

I must admit I am not convinced about the marketing effectiveness card tables with the vote 1 signs on the side of the road combined with people under umbrellas reading books. I know pizza companies have adapted this strategy by having staff wave discount placards at cars going past. However, you may want to consider the traffic safety aspect of this before adopting it.

So as you can see, elections have a mixed effect on business. Plan for the negative impacts and embrace each piece of political marketing you see as a priceless education. It makes surviving the lead up to an election a heck of a lot easier.

Site Booster asked:


In the constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran, President of Iran is the highest elected official and responsible for the functions of the executive. The post has significant government influence as it supervises the affairs of the executive branch. The other functions of the Iranian president involves appointing and supervising council of ministers, coordinating government decisions, and selecting government policies to place before the Islamic assembly. Iranian presidential election holds great value in its constitution.

The Iranian president is elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term. The candidates for Iranian Presidential election must be above 18 years of age. The most important fact is the candidature of the aspiring candidates must be approved by Council of Guardians consisting of 12 members. The approval process of presidential candidates is a process of checking the power of the candidates as a president and it picks few numbers of eligible candidates.

Election Procedure of Iranian President

The Council of Guardians is directly or indirectly selected by the Supreme Leader of the country. And the candidates who are approved by the Council of Guardians as well as the Supreme Leader are permitted for the run in the Iranian Presidential Elections. Generally, Iranian president is elected with majority of popular votes. Iranian presidential elections may require a runoff election to select a single winner. The tenure of the president is for four years, and the person is also eligible for a second term after the completion of his tenure.

The Iranian President has to take an oath of office on assuming the responsibilities of the post. He has to sign to it at the session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in the presence of the Head of Judiciary and the members of the Guardian Council. After being elected in the Iranian Presidential elections, the president is responsible to the people, the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The people of Iran have vested their interests in him and he has to live up to their expectations.

The Position of The Iranian President

According to the Constitution of Iran, the Iranian President is the highest authority in the country, second only to the Faqih, or the Supreme Leader. He must be a Shia Muslim and of outstanding political stature. He has the right to approve the nominations of Ministers, sign laws and bring them into force and veto decrees issued by the Council of Ministers.

Special Rules of Iranian Presidential Elections

The person who gets an absolute majority of the polled votes in the Iranian Presidential elections becomes the Iranian President. But in case no one is able to gain a clear majority in the first round, a second round of votes will be taken on the Friday of the following week. Only the two people who have got the highest and the second highest votes in the first round will participate. Sometimes, one of these people tends to withdraw from the elections. In such a case, the two persons with the highest number of votes in the first round will be considered. The supervision of the entire elections is done by the Guardian Council.

The new Iranian President has to be elected within one month of retirement of the outgoing President. The outgoing President continues to perform the duties of the President until the new one assumes office. The Constitution also says that if the President dies ten days prior to the D-day, the elections will be postponed for two weeks. The same will happen if the candidate dies between the first and second rounds of voting of the Iranian Presidential elections.

James William Smith asked:


The campaign of Republican John McCain has just released two web videos which highlight what the campaign feels is a national media bias in favor of Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election. It is asking people to vote for their favorite video.

This McCain campaign video release contest comes at the end of a week in which hundreds of members of the national media followed Barack Obama throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and Europe on his fact finding mission. However, the same press coverage was not to be found when McCain took a similar trip a few months ago or when he more recently visited Colombia and Mexico.

Meanwhile the New York Times featured an editorial from Barack Obama and then refused to publish one written by John McCain. The McCain article was to appear on the paper’s op-ed page and was rejected because it was supposedly incompatible with the article from Sen. Barack Obama that the Times previously had published.

There are three questions about the news media that should be considered in this Presidential campaign. Is the national media as biased in election 2008 as it appeared to be in 2004?. Does John McCain make a point with his recent web video on media bias? Does the American public perceive media bias in favor of Barack Obama in election 2008?

To answer the last question first, the American public does detect media bias. In fact, according to a recent poll (Rasmussen), nearly half of Americans believe that the media is biased toward the candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama. In the same poll only 14% believe that the media favors Republican candidate John McCain.

Certainly, political partisans in both major parties often feel that their candidate is the victim of unfavorable media coverage. So, for a more objective view of media reporting in election 2008, consider only what the independent voter is saying in that same public opinion poll. Indeed, nearly 50% of these unaffiliated voters see a media with a pro-Obama bias while just 21% see unbiased coverage. Only 12% of those not connected with either major party believe the media is trying to help Republican John McCain.

Is this perception of media bias toward Obama by the public based in news reporting reality? To answer this question, let’s consider the results of the study of the media in election 2008 from Jounalism.org. The organization’s Project for Excellence in Journalism evaluates more than 300 political stories each week in newspapers, magazines, and television in order to measure whether each candidate is talked about in more than 25% of the stories.

This excerpt from their ongoing election media study describes the national media’s election coverage to date; ..”It was the sixth straight week since the general election began in which Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, enjoyed a distinct advantage in the race for exposure over the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. Last week, Obama was a significant presence in 83% of campaign stories studied, vs. McCain in 52%. That advantage for Obama is only slightly higher than what he has enjoyed throughout this early phase of the general election period.

In the six weeks since Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign and the general election phase began, Obama has been a significant factor in 78% of the stories and McCain in 51%. The closest they have come in coverage was the week of June 30 through July 6, when Obama enjoyed an 11 percentage point advantage (73% of stories about Obama vs. 62% for McCain).”

Certainly, an advantage of nearly 8-5 in media exposure is a significant benefit for any politician running for the highest office in the land. The extent of Obama’s favorable exposure from the national media indicates a distinct Democratic bias so far in this election campaign.

Consider that media bias was also perceived by the voting public just prior to the actual voting in the Presidential election of 2004. In a Fabrizio, McLaughlin, and Associates election night survey of 1,000 voters in twelve battleground states, 46% thought the media’s coverage of that election campaign was biased. 32% thought the Democrats were favored by the media while just 14% felt the same way about the media and the GOP.

Of course, in the last election, a national network and prominent news anchor became the news for promoting and defending forged documents in an attempt to influence the election for the benefit of the Democratic Party nominee. Dan Rather and CBS will continue discussions about that dubious matter in their civil litigation currently scheduled for this fall.

Indeed, a lack of national media objectivity in election 2008 may well be a replay of the Presidential campaign of 2004. It looks like John McCain may have a valid point when he highlights media bias in favor of his opponent. However, based on the media’s recent history of political election coverage and an attractive and articulate Democratic candidate, his campaign should certainly not be very surprised.

Dalip Singh Wasan asked:


Only elections do not establish a democracy

Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

Democracy is the best form of government because here they establish a government of the people, by the people and for the people and when everything is for the people, it is the best form of government. There is no alternative to this government. We, the people of India who had been under slavery for centuries chose this form of government for us and we are trying to follow this system since the start of this system.

In a democracy thee is no raja, no maharaja, no monarch and there are no imperialists coming from abroad and maintaining a country like a colony. The people are the real masters of the country and they elect their government themselves and they give time to the elected people to work for them and if the people found that they had elected wrong people, they change the candidates and they elect another set of people. But in a country like India, we have got the same sets of people who are in one political party today and they shall be found in another political party tomorrow and on the third day they shall be forming their own party. We have seen that families and families are joining these brigades and they are ruling us. We have been suffering under family rule, under party dictatorship and then under individual autocracy. We had the vote power and we could write off these units and now we are under alliances and they are obliged to function under a common agenda.

We have noted that people who are joining politics and are winning elections, they have got no motive in their mind to serve the people like public servants. They are still functioning as rajas, maharajas, monarchs and they are also found functioning like the imperialists because the same old principles of ‘divide and rule’ and keep the people as slaves are in operation and we could not convert the rulers as public servants. That is the reason the same old principle of ‘beat the people and loot the people’ are in operation and we have seen the people in power are coming forward with new methods of collecting money which is the wealth created by the people and they are fund living life of kings. There is none to have supervision and control over these rulers and that is the reason only small bribe takers are in jails and all big looters are out and are enjoying life.

On one hand the people have been declared as masters of the country, but they have been given only one right and that right is right to vote. Once they cast their votes, they are pushed backward and they are told that they shall be recalled for such a rehearsal after five years and during these five years, the people are suffering the same life which they had been suffering during the times of rajas, maharajas, monarchs and the imperialists. The same sets of people are coming to power in turns and there is no one new in the line and the people remain only subjects and they live life of slaves because in spite of all slogans and all promises, they are still illiterate, unemployed, poor, houseless, beggars, ill, weak, wearing rags, hungry, starving and all that which conditions were with them during the times of slavery.

So we can say that with the introduction of this election system, we are not electing right types of people and that is the reason we can say that this election system shall not establish democracy in a country. This is just a name and nothing more. We are still electing rajas, maharajas, monarchs and the imperialists and not public servants. The time is far away when we shall be having properly educated, properly trained, properly examined people on the forefronts. There are competent people available in this country, but the present batches are not allowing them to come forward. We had done something wrong when we were framing our constitution and we could not prescribed proper qualifications for the people in politics. We had been creating jobs for them and that could be the reason we established these state level legislative assemblies and other offices where we post these politicians. We are making them payments and we are giving them opportunities to loot public funds and we are surprised to note that a supervisor is lower in qualifications than the officer functioning under him. In such situations orders are passed by the bureaucracy and signed by the political heads and we all know that our bureaucracy is not elected and they are not answerable to the people.

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Patty Leonard asked:


Chances are your children have been hearing about the election from their teachers in school, their friends, and the media.  But what kind of messages are they receiving and how much do your kids really know about the election process?  Parents often find it difficult to explain the election in terms that kids will understand, and it can be difficult to find ways to discuss the election that are meaningful to children. 

Here are some activities you can do with your children to help them understand the importance of the 2008 Presidential Election. 

•    Keep a Journal.  Encourage your child to keep an election day journal where they paste clippings from the newspapers and magazines.  Have them write a brief summary of the article and include their opinion on the subject.   Be sure to have them review local stories relating to the candidates and voters.  This piece will be a valuable piece of history to your family years after the election has taken place. 

•    Ask questions.  Encourage your child to ask questions to older siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents about what they think about the issues facing our country and the future.  Ask your children who they would vote for and discuss the reasons why. 

•    Take your children with you when you vote.  Let them see how excited you are to exercise this important right!  Your children look up to you and they will be more likely to become active citizens in the future when they see democracy in action.

•    Utilize the World Wide Web!  Visit election Websites designed specifically for kids. These sites will help your children understand the election process, and provide parents with helpful discussion tools:

Time For Kids

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election08/

This site has been created to teach kids the basics of world news and current events.  It features a ‘Meet the Candidates’ section that introduces both candidates and their running mates to young citizens.  Also includes games for children to play online including ‘Be the Nominee’ and ‘Electoral College Craze’.

Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government for Kids

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/

With Benjamin Franklin as their guide, this site is broken into age groups for parents to easily identify age appropriate activities and resources to help kids learn more about the different branches of government. 

The Democracy Project on PBS Kids

http://pbskids.org/democracy/

Find out what is so great about 2008 in this interactive site containing useful activities for kids and outlines how our government affects them.

Nickelodeon’s Kids Pick the President

http://www.nick.com/kpp/

An interactive site with streaming media with kids reporting on the issues and the campaign trail.  Kids can interact with one another on the message boards and get to know the Election Connection team through their blog.  Has a very useful feature that allows kids access to information on both candidates and their running mates. 

•    Read to your children.  Here are a few titles that could help your child understand the election process and its historical significance.  Check with your local libraries for availability and additional resources.

My Dad, John McCain

by Meghan McCain



Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

by Nikki Grimes

Election Connection: The Official Nick Guide to Electing the President

Nickelodeon



Election Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays)

Patricia J. Murphy



The Kid Who Ran For President

Dan Gutman

Presidential Elections: And Other Cool Facts

Syl Sobel

Carol Forsloff asked:


Will Americans vote for a black man for President?  This is a real and important question as I write this, and a question that may last even after the election.  Because after the election, we will either be discussing how Barack Obama was able to win and rise above the rhetoric of race or we will be looking at ourselves and asking why we couldn’t do that sufficiently to elect a well-educated, well-spoken man and not override the 30% estimate of white people that the polls say will not vote for an African American for President of the United States.

New politics provide impetus to review old questions.  The candidacy of Barak Obama, an African American, takes center stage on the issue of whether voters disguise their true intentions when they answer questions posed by pollsters about the effect of race on their choice of political candidates.  The term “Bradley effect” is used to describe behavior where white respondents state that race will not affect their vote and where the outcome of the election demonstrates that the candidate of choice receives far lesser votes than predicted.  This dichotomy between the polling and final results is said to reflect the fact that white voters lie about whether or not they will vote for an African American because they don’t want to appear socially inappropriate.  This “Bradley effect” relates to the topic of race but can apply to other qualities as well.

Every year we honor the memory of Martin Luther King.  It was his dream that the sons of former slaveholders and the sons of former slaves should one day be educated, work, and live together amicably and that the “Negro” would have the same opportunity to succeed in society as any other race.  The potential Presidency of Barak Obama appears to reflect some realization of that dream.  But it also brings up the factor of race on election results.

Many people don’t know how the term “Bradley effect” came about, so for purposes of this article, here’s some background.   In 1982 Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley was projected to win the governor’s race in California based upon polling prior to the election.  Instead his white opponent George Deukmejian won.  Seven years later Douglas Wilder, an African American, narrowly won the governorship of Virginia after being projected to win the office handily.  The term “Bradley effect” was used to describe these phenomena.

Recent election results in New Hampshire during the 2008 primaries present a different view, and perhaps a different outcome that shows progress in King’s realization of the dream.  Obama was projected to receive 37% of the vote in the Democratic primary against his rivals, and indeed, although he came in second to Hillary Clinton, he received the projected percentage of vote.  Thus the Bradley effect may no longer be operable in certain states, or under certain conditions, or with certain candidates.  But will that happen nationally.

It has been 40 years since segregation was examined and rejected as national policy.  The legacy of Martin Luther King remains something that all people can identify with, regardless of race.  His message in Washington there in 1963 gave a hope for true brotherhood and the potential of what the national might be able to do.  Obama is part of the realization of that hope, while at the same time his candidacy provokes us to examine our stereotypes and prejudices.  The possibility of turning back the Bradley effect as a historical relic as opposed to a definitive election response makes the “don’t ask, don’t tell” a phrase that will no longer fit any situation because every vote and every person will be shown to participate equally in our culture and fairness will be the banner for diversity and change for the better.

Beth Roberts asked:


Reflecting upon the “day after” election 2008, I found myself feeling like I was standing between my yesterday life and a vague facsimile of the life I had pre-campaign. I was still; and there was no movement of time. I discovered the promises I had made to myself that I would finally clean my house, do the laundry and get the shopping done just after election night, are still left undone. Yet, I mindlessly wander around feeling  an anxiousness, as if I was suppose to be doing something, but there was no motivation to do much of anything.

Over the last year or so my whole body, mind and soul has been focused on one goal; to do everything within my ability to be a part of history and see the first African American be elected as our 44th President of the United States. Now that it is a reality, I am discovering I was living an alternate life that ended quite abruptly on November 5th, 2008. The announcement that Barack Obama was the projected winner of the election was such a surreal experience but that event rapidly turned into an abyss of emotions.

Although, a day and night had passed, there seemed to be something going on. I was really mystified by my emotions and behavior, or in my case, the lack of behaviors until this feeling of familiarity bubbled up into my consciousness; I had experienced this before. Some time back, I had volunteered over 100 hours at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the days following the closing ceremonies of that very meaningful world-wide event, I meandered around my days as if I was in a thick fog, and no matter how much I tried walk around or out of it, the fog continued to wrap around my life.

There had been approximately 25,000 people volunteering for the 2002 Olympics, and most of them were in the same patch of fog that I found myself in. This phenomenon actually became a story in the local news media. The news media dubbed the volunteers’ experience as Post Olympic Blues. I was pessimistic about such a description because I wasn’t feeling depressed, I was feeling like my purpose in life had been ripped right from under my feet.

Since the 2008 election process began, most of us have been living on a constant flow of the hormone adrenaline. This hormone has helped us push our bodies to be super-human by living on little sleep, constantly walking, door knocking, and talking to exhaustion; motivated by the hope that change was on the horizon. After the election, the body no longer needed the constant secretion of adrenaline, and so we soon felt the physical and mental crash that occurs when the body stops producing adrenaline in constant high volumes. This crash most of us experienced is an inventible consequence of a swift transition from high motivation and energy to “nothing.” The nothing we are experiencing, is the beginning of what can now be known as the “Post Election Trauma Syndrome,” or (PETS).

PETS has similar features to a well-renown concept known as the Kubler-Ross “Five Stages of Grief” model. This model was developed for the purpose of understanding how people grieve and process a significant loss in their lives. Most people believe that “grief” only applies to the loss of a loved one through death, or the loss of a love relationship, or even to the loss of a beloved pet. However, any significant personal change in circumstances is considered a loss and the change does not always have to be viewed as a negative one. The change just needs to be significant enough to elicit the response of loss.

It is pretty easy to notice that all of us, who have had a considerable investment into this year’s historic election, have experienced a “significant personal change” in our lives that may have caused a cluster of symptoms related to PETS. Our collective and diverse efforts and experiences dissipated soon after November 4th, 2008 and most of us, to some degree, have had some feelings of this loss. Even though the outcome of all our hard work and prayers had a positive result, gaining an understanding that we are suffering these symptoms of PETS, may help us reintegrate ourselves back into our family, friends and the society in which we once belonged.

There are specific symptoms that are identified with the PETS disorder which are identified below:

Numbness (mechanical functioning and social insulation)

Denial (this isn’t happening to me!)

Bargaining (If only, then I will be OK, if …..)

Depression (moping around, no motivation)

Acceptance (I’m ready for whatever comes)

Reorganization (re-entry into a more ‘normal’ pre-campaign life.)

We may recognize some of the above symptoms as something we are currently experiencing, or have recently experienced over the last many days. The list above is a collection of symptoms related to PETS and if we are able to identify with at least two of these symptoms we may be suffering from PETS.

Let’s examine each of these symptoms separately by starting with the symptom of feeling “numb.” If we are wondering around our daily life functioning as a mechanical robot and insulating ourselves from any emotions that may want to surface, then we are most likely suffering from the symptom of numbness. Eventually, the numbness will wear off and we may move toward a natural defense mechanism of denial to protect our psyche from the reality that our efforts and work are no longer needed; and the life we had been living for the last year and a half or so, is no more. We may feel some anxiousness as if we are suppose to be doing something but we are bewildered as to what that might be. If this sound like you or any of us, there is a high probability we are suffering from the symptom of denial.

At some point denial will begin to dissolve into one of the other symptoms of PETS. Nearly all of us were ecstatic when we heard the announcement that the media projected Barack Obama had won the election. The extremely positive feelings we were having may have lasted for hours or even for days since our ultimate goal had been realized.  Eventually though, we all began to participate in the symptom known as bargaining as another way to cope with PETS.

This symptom translated into a worry of “if only” Obama’s Head Quarters doesn’t shut down the campaign site, we will be able to keep in touch with the many virtual friends we had made. This symptom became quite noticeable when all of us blogger’s began posting a very similar theme of concern. Many of us started to consider the possibility of losing the site and started posting “if only” the Obama Head Quarters could provide an alternative site we would all be “OK” because we would still be able to stay in contact with all of our virtual friends we made during the Obama campaign. The Obama Headquarters must have noticed all of our worried posts and posted a forum that stated they would not be shutting down the site and they also notified us that they had created a new sight so that we may continue on our journey of participating in our government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Even though we had been reassured by Obama Headquarters that they had not forgotten about us, some of us may have started to suffer from some level of depression. This may have started the day after the election or at any time after and co-exist with any of the other symptoms we were experiencing. Although this mild form of depression can be a natural part of the loss process, the symptoms should dissipate in a short period of time. If for some reason, someone continues to be depressed or the feelings of depression dramatically increase, it is important that we seek professional help immediately.

Eventually we will begin to accept this significant change in our life. At first, the symptom of acceptance related to PETS, may be tempered and we may be somewhat aloof about returning to our pre-campaign life. There will still be occasional waves of emotions that can be triggered by any number of experiences, which is very normal and is evidence that we are beginning to heal from what we perceive as a loss. As time passes, we will eventually reorganize our thinking by incorporating our loss with positive memories of the long, hard fought battle of the campaign. We will no longer be sad about this significant change in our lives, as the experiences are now a part of us and the feelings of loss will no longer keep us from functioning as we once did in our pre-campaign lives.

(PETS) is not a neat list of absolutes, it is a wide range of emotions and behaviors that are as individual and varied as those of us who are dealing with the disorder. What is important to remember, is PETS is not a pervasive condition and will subside as time goes by. Armed with the knowledge of PETS, we can now better understand ourselves and others who are going through many symptoms of PETS. Recognizing that we’re not alone in our suffering can increase our empathy and support for others and provide permission for us to go through the process in our own way and in our own time.

By now all of us may be wondering how we can help ourselves through this period of suffering from the PETS disorder. There is actually a barrage of activities that can improve our mood and increase our ability to recover faster. Just like people who suffer from PETS that will have diverse and unique symptoms, there are also as many unique ways of improving our ability to recover from this disorder.

Some ideas to promote our healing process may be to take a day to pamper ourselves in whatever way that we know how to pamper ourselves. Start making that scrapbook of your campaign experiences. Meditate/Pray, read both of Obama’s books for the first or second time. Give your pets’ extra special attention. Volunteer at an animal shelter, or a homeless shelter. Look for your local Democratic office and become acquainted with your local leaders. Begin emailing or writing letters to your state representatives about issues that you and our President-elect Obama have been passionate about.

It may be worth mentioning that the Obama Headquarters have already developed a new website to keep “we the people” involved in the restoration of our government. The site link is http://www.change.gov and may be a great way to start the process of reorganization and reentry into our pre-campaign life.

This is not the time of wondering where we go from here, but a time to adjust and move forward. Since this is a specialized disorder, it can be comforting to know we will eventually succeed in healing ourselves from PETS. This will become obvious when we are able to see ourselves stepping back into our pre-campaign life. The one difference between pre and post campaign involvement though, is that we will have brought with us a richer life filled with positive memories of our widespread involvement with our children’s and grandchildren’s history.

Although, we have all participated in making history, there is a possibility there may be another outbreak of PETS four years from now. However, next time we will have all been vaccinated and thus be armed by our understanding and knowledge of PETS disorder, which will greatly reduce the symptoms that we may suffer. If we decide to get involved in the political process once again, it will be inevitable that we will have that sudden and significant feeling of loss that will occur after re-electing President Obama in 2012. In the meantime, one way we can heal faster from PETS, would be by collecting all of the memorabilia that has been scattered around our homes that we thought would be cleaned up by know, and start making our scrapbook of memories we promised ourselves we were going to do as soon as this election was over!

(Loosely Based on the Grief Cycle model first published in On Death & Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 1969 and the Interpretation by Alan Chapman 2006-08.)