Greetings,
In this inaugural post, I highlight an article that I found in today's NextGov by Ronald Brownstein:
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080421_2316.php?zone=ngtoday
In essence, Brownstein is suggesting that this year's campaign is the first 21st century presidential race. He makes this claim due to the use of the Internet as the driving force for the Democratic nomination battle between Obama and Clinton. Fundraising, mobilizing volunteers, and delivering the campaigns' respective messages are all being generated through the viral power of the Web. In fact, Senator Obama's campaign videos have been viewed 37 million times on YouTube!
I do want to give a hat tip to Howard Dean for his 2004 presidential bid. In my mind, he demonstrated the power of the Internet. In many ways, he would not have been a viable candidate if it weren't for the way in which he harnessed the Web for fundraising and sharing his message. But Senator Obama, and Senator Clinton to a lesser degree, have taken those tactics to another level.
The irony with the Web, especially with Senator Obama's campaign, is its ability to move people from their monitors to a more direct - and in some ways more traditional approach - to campaigning. Millions of volunteers across the country have engaged in grassroots efforts, such as voter registration, canvassing and get out the vote activities, to score huge victories, especially in caucus states where such energy is critical to success.
As the article suggests, every future campaign will follow this game plan if it is to remain relevant and effective - especially for the next generation of voters!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment