The Politics of Sen. Barack Obama & The Technology Diffusion Theory

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has garnered the required number of Democratic delegates, he soon can be the official candidate to go against the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, in the November U.S. Presidential Election. And it cannot be ignored that Obama's platform of change has catapulted him to the top.

Nevertheless, rather than enjoying the win amongst Democrats, he must now put aside mere rhetoric and start framing up the specifics: What-to (change), How-to,and How-does, based on the American democratic principles. He has to win the confidence of Sen. Hillary Clinton's followers, the undecided, the independents, the Green party members, and even the Republican voters, who are disappointed of the present administration.

Since change has been the message of Sen. Obama, I cannot help but think of the Technology Diffusion Theory, which made an American sociologist and communication scholar, Everett M. Rogers, well-known. The theory categorizes members of a society into five groups. Innovator comprises 2.5% of the population. I always consider the senator as an innovator being a young idealist politician, who preaches change. There's the Early Adopter that takes 13.5% of the population. Early Adopter easily adheres to the innovator's idea out of affinity and respect. There's a big number of Early Majority,34%, who only need a slight peer pressure to gain their confidence. Another 34% of the total population comprises the Late Adopter, those people who are skeptical of the change or innovation. They could be those people, who has difficulty to believe that putting a young, historically first African-American (with some affinal connection to Asian nationals)as a president would do any good to improve the lives of the Americans. The last group that comprises 16% of the population are the Laggards, those people who are either very slow to accept change or just don't want a change at all.

Sen. Barack Obama has to act fast, and of course, at his own time, to make up differences with Sen. Hillary Clinton, so as to unify the bruised democratic party. He has to act fast to work on the specifics of his "change" platform, especially that many democrats are still questioning what those changes might be. If Sen. Obama and his advisers could spell-out these specifics as soon as possible, I absolutely would be sure that he would win even the disgruntled Republicans to his side, and would become the first African-American President of the United States of America. And I hope and pray that, once he becomes the president, he would really stand firmly to his promise and deliver a real good change, not only to the U.S of A. but also to the global society.

Now, here is a clerihew, a 4-line rhymed verse that should be funny and satirical.

Sen. Barack Obama.

Presenting to you, Sen. Barack Obama.
Blah-blah...Endorsed by our beloved, Oprah.
African, Caucasian, Indonesian...well, American!
If he'd win, the face at the oval office would historically change, man!

(Note: This clerihew is included in my upcoming book, 150+1 Poems on THE EXPERIMENTAL DASANG (Hey Poem) and 45 OTHER POETRY FORMS: An Anthology.