Chattering Clans and Tribes do not mix....

Chattering Clusters include Clans and Tribes. But Clans do not include Tribes and vice versa. Members of Chattering Clans can also be members of Chattering Tribes simultaneously but in each forum they wear different hats. Within the Clan it is cool be expansive, messy, undisciplined, theoretical, hypothetical, imaginary, fanciful, etc. But within the Tribe is cool to be focused, driven, practical, experienced, seasoned, detailed, calculating, etc. These two social networks serve the same people in very different ways. One is a thinking (Clans) and the other is a doing (Tribes) forum.

The only way to appeal to both the Clans and the Tribes is to go to the meta level of both forum - that is the Chattering Clusters. Thus if Obama wants to win the White House he must not select Clinton as his running mate. Similarly Mc Cain must not select Romney. Because for either candidate to do that would mean their message has to be palatable to both Clans and Tribes at the same time - this is impossible. Obama appeals to the Clans in the Democratic Party while Clinton appeals to the Tribes. Mc Cain appeals to the Tribes in the Republican Party while Romney appeals to the Clans. Both Mc Cain and Obama have to appeal to the Chattering Clusters throughout the broad electorate - the candidate who does that best will win the White House.

Obama is best placed to do this because he has a broad message - change we can believe in - that is not based on his liberal ideologies. His ideologies are not an asset in this election so he must stay away from being too specific about policies. His ideologies are not a huge burden either because voters want change - they want change in ideals, ideas, and rhetoric. Obama promises these types of changes and that is all he has to do - he does not have to argue the specifics of policy settings with Mc Cain. If Obama stays on his current message of change then he will appeal to the Chattering Clusters first and foremost. If he does that he will win the White House in a canter.

Mc Cain can also appeal to the Chattering Clusters if he does not attack Obama on his liberal philosophies and policy preferences. Mc Cain must stay above the fray of Democratic versus Republican Party politics. He can do this if he does campaign as a 1950s style and uses the Town Hall discussions as his calling card to influence the Chattering Clusters. If he can stay grounded in local rather than global issues then he can present himself as the demonstration effect of the change we can believe in too. If he does this then this election is too close to call.

I sense that Obama is more likely to find the broad appeal needed to convince the Chattering Clusters to talk about him more than they talk about Mc Cain. If so then he wins in a landslide.