Guest Commentary From Matthew Sawh: What Obama Could Learn From Princess Di
Before Helen Mirren’s portrayal of a stoic, unsentimental Queen detached from the realities of her people in the late 90’s, there was this portrait of an engaged monarch, at age 31, from a 1957 Christmas broadcast (the first to be televised):
“I hope that this new medium [television] will make my Christmas message more personal and direct. It is inevitable, that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you, a successor to the kings and queens of history. Someone whose face may be familiar but who never really touches your personal life”.
You can watch her address here.
President Obama recently visited the Royal Family but, its most intriguing member was absent. Princess Diana cast and, captioned her coverage in such bright lights that its wattage quickly outshined the other royals and cemented an electric relationship with the British people.
Both books were successful, in part, because they had been in some respects outsiders looking in from prominent positions: Obama as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and, Lady Diana as the kindergarten teacher, now rising Queen. Further, they were both unsettled youngsters born in 1961
Lady Di and President Obama both wrote books to explain their journeys to the public. In 1992, Lady Di was busy collaborating with Andrew Morton on Diana: Her True Story recounting her manifold personal and, marital miseries. Meanwhile, Barack Obama worked on his book, Dreams From My Father.
Most fascinating about this pair is their preferred mode of perception. Diana thought herself intellectually ‘thick as a plank’ and, relied on her keen emotional intelligence to rally support. Meanwhile, Obama has taken the more intellectual route casting himself as an unflappable, unshakable leader.
Since this meeting is impossible, I offer two tips from Princess Di’s media strategies which may be helpful to President Obama:
* Overcome the upper-class dislike of intense emotion: Princess Di always knew when to shed a tear and, when to bat an eyelash. She was a very volatile person but, it underscored her public humanity. President Obama whether through personal fortitude or, his schooling commands a calm, collected presence. This makes him appear steady and presidential but, limits the effectiveness of his public pronouncements.
Obama has never played his Ace. He has never displayed real red-throated anger of the Clintonian-variety. If he had at moments regarding bonuses, bailouts or, stimulus, it would have shocked the country and, encouraged an increasingly isolated GOP to overplay its hand.
Can you imagine what Bill Clinton’s empathetic powers would have done here?
· Bring the darkness into light: Diana’s AIDS advocacy and, her struggles with bulimia in the late 1980’s, endeared her to a British public long schooled in expecting sternness from their public leaders. Historic distance between the public and, the crown ensured a quiet reverence until the media’s sharper, more personal focus began to make that distance a halting liability.
Obama inherits that media climate where even a one-line put down of CNN’s Ed Henry is big news. He could use his natural tendencies toward ironic detachment to endear himself to the press. Or, he could call the press to the carpet for being shallow in its treatment of his presidency.
We never heard much about his time working for Public Allies other than the fact that it involved ‘community organizing’. Republicans targeted that rhetorical void to try to define it in the presidential race ( Palin: “I guess it’s like being a community organizer but, you actually have responsibilities”). Her critique was too vague to be successful but, the larger point is that I’ll bet many Americans would consider themselves in one sense or, another a ‘community organizer’. Drawing on that experience, Obama ought consider picking up part of Bill Clinton’s mid-90’s values agenda.
He should go to Chicago and, have a town hall meeting with the industrial workers he helped as an organizer and, follow it up with a prime-time address presenting a plan crafted in his personal journey and life experience.
Obama is our leader but, he is not yet, in the public consciousness our peer. Like Reagan and, Queen Elizabeth II, he is considered to be friendly without being our friend.
Will the king learn from the people’s princess? Her stagecraft convinced even Prince Charles to fall in love with Diana at a distance. If Diana’s carefully constructed coverage compelled Prince Charles to love (‘whatever that means’ notwithstanding), Obama could learn from her.
Key ideas and interpretations presented in this piece draw on Tina Brown’s wonderful book, The Diana Chronicles.
