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Your thoughts on President 2.0
By "President 2.0" I mean Barack Obama's campaign strategy of embracing the internet and all it has to offer. He's got his own social networking site (my.barackobama.com) and he's got a footprint on all the other established ones already (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr). The strategy seems to be reaching people it normally wouldn't and is getting people more involved in the campaign than I've personally seen before.
My mental image of a traditional presidential campaign is like a trench war with a dugout base of operations from which dirt and propaganda fly. This particular campaign as a suspiciously empowering effect on those who choose to get involved. Traditionally, it's been, "Just vote for me and I'll handle the rest." This new approach seems to really give people a sense of responsibility.
Howard Dean tried the blogs in 2004, but he had 2 things working against him. 1) Who the fuck is Howard Dean? 2) Who the fuck knew what a blog was 4 years ago? This time around, people know about Barack Obama because he's talked about more than Hillary, and everyone knows what a blog is. Hell, everyone has a fuckin' MySpace account.
My own opinion on the matter is that it's good, cheap marketing. I really have no way to tell if it's working or not. In fact, I don't know if either Barack or Hillary are riding their novelty or their principles. What I do know is that 12 months from now, all of the players are going to have a distinct presence online. What that means is the election may be swayed by the candidate with enough people who think he's "cool" instead of the issues themselves. But that's a maybe. One would like to think that democracy works FOR us rather than against us.
Right.
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