….Obama Has Revolutionized the Web and Politics
1. While Howard Dean did a credible job by raising $27-million online when he ran for president in 2004, Obama took online fund-raising to a completely new level by raising a huge chunk of his $200-million on the Web. This include $31-million in April alone as Obama and Hilary went toe-to-toe for the last bunch of delegates. The vast majority of the online donations made were under $200.
2. Obama leverage social networking, using vehicles such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and text-messaging to get his message out. This included eight million viewings of “Yes We Can”, a video made in support of Obama.
3. Obama brought Silicon Valley into politics. By aggressively leveraging the Web and courting Silicon Valley, including announcing his technology policies at the Googleplex, Obama was enthusiastically embraced by the technology community. Andrew Sullivan contends “it was one of Clinton’s many huge errors that she bypassed Silicon Valley’s fundraisers in favour of more traditional areas of Democratic support. And she missed the key element of the new politics: social networking. She was still AOL; Obama was Facebook. Clinton was the PC; Obama was a Mac.”
4. By encouraging the Web as a way to raise money and communicate, Obama did something amazing: he engaged many young voters who had previously expressed little or no interest in politics. By walking and talking in medium that has become an inherent part of how young people live, work and play, Obama figured out how to effectively reach out to people considered to be disenfranchised and disinterested.
More: To see Obama’s remarkable “Race Speech” click here.
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