PRESENCE, APPEARANCE MATTER IN WINNING ELECTION

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Those who are running for election in the October 30, 2023 village and May 2025 local and national polls could learn lessons how the Americans operate their political campaign.

In Chapter 25 of Rage – a 452 –page’s oeuvre d'art non-fiction by Bob Woodward (Yes Virginia the renowned Washington Post’s correspondent who was the beneficiary of Deep Throat (the scorned for promotion former FBI Deputy Director William Mark Felt whose expose’ to Woodward cost U.S President Richard Nixon to resign from office), seasoned campaign manager Brad Parscale, now 47, told Woodward that before the U.S presidential election in 2020 then President Donald Trump told him: “Presence is so important. He’d say it’s probably more important how I looked when I give a speech than the speech itself”.

Parscale explained that when Trump got a picture with the President of China, he cited that it’s more important than whatever he did there in the meeting. The average voter would think, “Oh, the President’s in China. I feel Safe. We’re not going to war with them”.

The six feet and three inches tall Trump told the six feet eight inches Parscale that appearance matter than to convince more voters to vote for him.

In every photo-op with The Donald, he told him: “Don’t stand next to me. Appearances matter and defined the candidate”.

There were few photos of the two together.

“I’m a master brander,” Parscale told several staff members and visitors that day, Woodward observed.

He said Trump set the themes of campaigning and governing and Parscale’s operation converted these themes along with trump’s tweets into a massive unmatched media blitz of messaging and fundraising.

In the 2020 campaign period, Parscale and his team had already exploited the power of A.I or artificial intelligence that people nowadays are talking.

“Parscale’s operation would test up to 100, 000 message variables in a single day. For example, they tested whether a red or green press-to-donate button raised more money in fundraising. In ten seconds, the AI models could tell them how a particular ad performed compared to the last four million that had been run (sic) before it. They had almost twenty $1 million (P56.84 million in Philippines currency- emphasis mine) fundraising days in a row lately. Trump’s State of the Union Address, held on February 4 had been the biggest day of the year so far with $5.3 million (P301,252,000 – emphasis mine) raised,” Woodward wrote.

He conducted focus groups in 12 different cities in eight states all over the country with over 1,000 people about the presidential race.

One question asked: Would you vote for someone you like but don’t agree with his policies, or would you vote for someone you don’t like but you like his policies?

“One hundred percent said, I’ll vote for the guy I don’t like but like his policies. One thousand to zero,” the campaign manager said.

FILIPINO ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN IS DIFFERENT

Susmariosep! I prayed that my op-ed doesn’t confuse Filipino readers on Parscale sciences to Pinoy candidates who are not deft on A.I and those American campaign strategies but still win election through dancing, baby cuddling and kissing, intimidation and vote buying.

The Flips – our countrymen – are more familiar with trolls who got all the courage to defame and besmirched a rival and his supporters with their scathing remarks and posts treacherously and cowardly done at social media and initiate vote buying called in Pangasinan as “pakurong”.

As I write this column, my errand boy Galman and his pal Balong are grilling two kilos of fat hitos (catfish) because a village candidate and his bets for kagawad (councilmen) are coming in our sitio to ingratiate by treating with booze and finger foods the male voters.

This candidate and his entourage are pressured to spend this early because during the flood brought by the monsoon rains of Super Typhoon Egay and Typhoon Falcon the two candidates for the village chief's post have already generously distributed a tray of eggs and more than a kilo dressed chicken (for the other candidate) and a pack that contained two canned goods, packs of noodles, slice bread and margarine from the reelectionist Kapitan who used the village calamity fund. This fund according to one of the Kagawads was distributed by the Kap alone since those Kagawads – who approved it – are mostly his nemesis.

“Magastos talaga pag tatakbo kang Kapitan (It’s expensive to run for the post of the village chief),” I told Balong who corrected me that the third candidate for the top post prepared three Alfonso Brandy (pegged at P340 each for one liter) and not the cheaper pang masa Emperador Brandy Light (priced at P279 for one liter).

While we talked he was piercing with bamboo sticks the catfish already shrouded with salt to be roasted on the already burning charcoals spread on the iron grills.

I advised Balong and some kagawads that they better buy the cheaper Emperador instead of the Alfonso to treat the hoi polloi.

This poor mathematician calculated: Including the three Emperadors and the two kilos hitos in our smallest sitio, a Kap’s bet has to spend P31, 860 this early with each of the nine big sitios seven one liter Emperadors plus five kilos of hito.

And we’re not talking yet about the vote buying on the eve of the election that some of these councilmember told me to reach P1,000 per voter after I told them in the vernacular: Gaya ba ng huling eleksiyon ang bilihan ng boto dito aabot uli sa P500 (each voter)?

Who said running for a village chief in the Philippines is a cake walk?