Brandjack News

The worst result in the Blagojevich trial for Barack Obama is one that leads to another trial – and that is the result that has come to pass.  It is not as if the verdict leaves any doubt as to the former governor’s guilt, since he was convicted on one count and left with a hung jury on the other 24 counts.  If rumours that the jury was 11-1 in favour of convicting Blago are anywhere close to correct,  the story will continue to run through the mid-term elections in November.

Of course, this is embarrassing for the President, but it is entirely survivable.  There has been no serious suggestion that Obama himself did anything wrong.  The story cuts close to him.  Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell Obama’s former Senate seat, and White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel is a close political ally of the disgraced governor.  But close is not the same as suggesting that the President himself is in any way corrupt.  Blagojevich was caught on tape cursing the White House for refusing to bribe him over filling the Senate vacancy.

Social media coverage of the trial is – as you would imagine – overwhelmingly hostile to Blagojevich.  One Tweet even suggests that all twelve jurors have been appointed to the Senate.  Even so, a search for ‘obama’ turns up almost no coverage of the trial.  So far, at least, the deeply damaged Blagojevich brand is not infecting Obama’s brand.  There are some pretty solid reasons for this.  For one thing Obama genuinely seems to have done nothing wrong.  His team may have been less than forthcoming about Blagojevich’s corruption, but nonetheless seem to have declined to participate.  Secondly, other stories about Obama seem to be swamping references to Blagojevich.

In part, Obama is continuing to benefit from his success in reaching out to the social media universe.  There remains, despite his declining poll numbers, a strong body of support for him.  And, of course, the Presidency tends in the ordinary course of things to produce a lot of news.

Do the strong channels that Obama has into social media protect him from negative stories?  Undoubtedly his level of preparedness and engagement has been an advantage.  But it cannot immunise him against real news.  If this story cut any closer to Rahm Emanuel than seems to be the case, the White House would certainly find itself in the firing line.