Reputation Management Online

A year ago people all over the world rode the wave of hope when a man who seemed to want peace, who quoted Gandhi and Mandela was elected the 44th US President. Obama told the world “Yes we can” and a lot of us felt moved to expect something new.

Months later he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the President had to accept the award a few days after her ordered 30000 troops to Afghanistan. The irony was not lost on the world and now one year down the line a Republican has won the Massachusetts election!

Obama’s Popularity ratings are down, people are disillusioned and somewhere along the line, the audacity of hope – hope of promises being kept has been fading away. Oratory skills aside, Obama suffered most from being anointed the saviour. A Huffington Post article had this to say

According to an analysis by the non-partisan web site Politifact.com, Obama fulfilled only 91 of his 502 campaign promises. They rate 14 promises as “broken” and another 87 as “stalled.”

Guantanamo Bay closing down has been deferred time and again; unemployment’s on the rise and the Republicans have won in a Democratic strong-hold.  Be it health care, fighting terror or global warming nothing seemed to have really met the mark anywhere.

From a reputation management point of view – the President could rise up to the occasion now that he is finally out of the ‘messiah persona’ and use this reputation slide to his advantage and work on rebuilding popularity by working on the internal issues and promises.

A year from now, where do you think Obama’s Presidency ratings will be, any thoughts?