The Key to the 2008 Presidential Election

The key to the 2008 Presidential Election...

Is the reference group mindset of the voters.

A reference group is a set of individuals that a person identifies with or aspires to.

To whom the voters mentally refer to - is influenced by the imagery, metaphors and languages used by the political campaigns.

For example, in the Joe the Plumber analogy, who do voters picture themselves as? Who do voters identify with?

Do voters see themselves as Joe the Plumber working hard every day to hopefully earn enough some day to take over the business?

Or do voters picture themselves on the other end spectrum, as those needing government handouts (redistribution of your wealth) to survive.

President Bush's "Ownership Society" was a hallmark of his 2004 re-election campaign, and was wisely configured to take advantage of voters' reference group mindset.

In an Ownership Society, voters were encouraged to think "If my neighbor owned a house, I too wanted to own my own house." Voters were encourage to think of "the Joneses" down the street, at work or in their social circle - and how the re-election of President Bush would increase their chance at keeping up with the standard of living they aspired to.

But voter reference groups can also backfire, as President Bush learned when it came to Social Security reform.

The reference group of voters wasn't a large portable retirement fund that could be left to heirs, but rather voters pictured themselves in the mental position of losing all their retirement money in the stock market.

Therefore, the key to winning the 2008 Presidential election - is the campaign that can best utilize the imagery, metaphors and language of voters' reference group to attract their vote (and their support for key platform issues).