Get used to it, folks...the recent presidential election brought about a lot of firsts: the first African-American president-elect and the first campaign energized via social networking and other technology, just to name a couple of valuables. "Lessons" from the presidential election are being written in almost every professional genre, and they aren't going away any time soon.

With that in mind, I hark back to when we weren't quite clear about the Republican and Democratic nominees' messages. Or were we? Were there clear messages being communicated on each side? Did they follow the letter of the law when it came to connecting with their target audiences?

While I thought that one candidate started with and maintained a clear message throughout, one of my colleagues did not see it quite that way.

What did that opinion, written and recorded, get David Bohl besides more ink for his website? Recognition by the Whakate Project (www.whakate.com) for his analysis of the campaigns before the election. (Read "Are you focusing on the message? What the 2008 presidental election can teach us about living on the offense" at http://budurl.com/f5uc). 

Bohl (www.slowdownfast.com) further expanded on his thoughts with "Actions speak louder than words: focusing on what people do instead of what they say" (http://budurl.com/6d7l). 

Regardless of how you view the presidentlal election's outcome, I agree with Bohl in that actions do speak louder than words in elections, at work and in other life situations. 

Like with any nominee, we'll have to wait and see what the future brings. In the mean time, we can only hope that President-Elect, Barack Obama, brings about the "change" for the better promised during the longest campaign in history. I also hope that we, as a UNITED States, continue to experience the overwhelming feeling of hope and promise that many feel as a result of the 2008 election, for many years to come.