By Kevin Sawyer - Media Relations Specialist

By all accounts, Barack Obama had the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag two weeks ago. All he had to do was come close in states like Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and coast to Denver this summer. But his campaign made a serious miscue. While floundering in Ohio, Obama’s campaign challenged Hillary Clinton to quit if SHE lost in Ohio. Big mistake…

It used to be that success in American politics consisted of a series of turning points. The Lincoln-Douglas debates, Fireside chats, and the “Checkers” speech all consisted of a politician seizing a moment to elevate his cause. Nobody saw them coming, and nothing was the same after.

Today, if a prominent politician schedules a major event, news venues will analyze the speech from every angle before it has been drafted. Social networking sites will come to a consensus about what he or she should say, and the politician will speak against the backdrop of a plethora of expectations, against which even the most successful speech has the potential to fail. Many will watch the speech on YouTube days later, reading and contributing comments as they watch.