The presidential campaign for the 2008 election is sure to be exciting. With new technology and cultural changes, the voters will have different expectations that will require the adjustment of their campaigns to fit the needs and demands of the American people. In 2004, Dean’s campaign was one of the first to utilize the medium of Internet media to strengthen the power of his supporters. Now, many notable current presidential candidates have discovered the power of the World Wide Web.
In his recently published book, The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House, Garrett M. Graff describes how social networks, blogs, and other new technology tools are changing politics and presidential campaigns, and what “flattening of the world” means for the 2008 election. “The 2008 presidential campaign will be like none in recent memory: the first campaign in fifty years in which both the Democrats and the Republicans must nominate a new candidate, and the first ever in which the issues of globalization and technology will decide the outcome.”
As Garrett writes in the Washingtonian (December, 2007), “in the 2008 election, four tools-online video, cell phones, blogs, and social networking sites-provide unparalleled power to ordinary voters and have created a new infrastructure for launching- and rebutting –political attacks.” In this context, the July 23 Democratic YouTube/CNN debate was the first of “officially –sanctioned” debates, which asked the questions submitted through online video, and which made history in allowing regular people from across the country to have their own opinions in the debate.
People like to say that the Democrats have the competitive advantage, because they have been better using the Internet giving ordinary Americans access to the tools they need to change the election with the click of a mouse. The technology used by MoveOn and Meetup gave the isolated people the possibility to unite and organize. For awhile, the Democratic Party staffers have been tracking the Republican candidates on videos, which are uploaded directly to a special section of Democrats.org called FlipperTV. Voters can download the video, re-mix it, add music, and use it as they wish. This way, voters can see what the candidates do and say while they are not on CNN or Fox News. They are different people when they don’t think the cameras are rolling. An example is the videotaped words of Rudy Giuliani at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2007. Also, the Democratic Party is testing a brand new voter contact system that will give state parties, campaigns, and individual activists the critical tools they need to get out the vote on Election Day.
Perhaps most surprising is the use of Internet media by Ron Paul’s campaign. The candidate is almost opposite of the web’s most common users, who are generally young and liberal. Paul is among the oldest of the presidential hopefuls at 71 years old and he has labeled himself as a “true conservative.” Yet Paul’s supporters, encouraged by his online campaigning, have showed themselves to be active supporters in new mediums of communication, such as online polls and text messages. (“Ron Paul Builds Campaign on the Web”, CNS News) His initiatives enable to reach audiences that otherwise might not have been interested by adopting of sites such as Twitter.
Democrat candidate John Edwards recently launched an online petition drive, enabling voters to pledge to not vote for candidates who accept campaign cash from lobbying firms or special interest political action organizations (in other words, those who buy support). By putting the petition online, Edwards is able to make the voters, wherever they are, feel empowered. The interest is accessible to everyone, everywhere, and a petition could not have been organized without this medium.
Another Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has also recently used the Internet to his advantage. He used the specific (and extremely popular, especially in the younger generation) YouTube site, where one can broadcast videos. Giuliani’s people put a video of 9/11 dedications, reminding the public of Giuliani’s actions as New York City mayor during the time. Since this video is online, he has managed to combine the two arguably most influential media tools: the Internet and Television. The visual of the video combined with the accessibility of the Internet makes a very clever marketing scheme.
Hilary Clinton has employed the web as well and was the first to announce her campaign online. She, too, uses different kinds of media to reach a wider audience. Acknowledging the cultural phenomenon of “Oprah-like” talk shows, she is trying to communicate with her supporters (and hopefully non-supporters) through chatting—conversation over the Internet. (“The power of online campaigning”, BBC News).
Also notably is the fact that these candidates, as well as the well-know candidate Barack Obama, have announced their plans for running by using Internet mediums, especially the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace.
Thus, it is indisputable that the very intelligent people who run their campaigns have learned from history– specifically Howard Dean’s presidential online campaign–that the Internet is big, powerful, and now, unavoidable. As Garrett argues, “Globalization has made technology both the medium and the message of 2008. The usual domestic issues are now global issues. Meanwhile, the emergence of the Web as a political tool has shaken up the campaign process, leaving front-runners vulnerable right up until Election Day.”
