Obama and New Media
Politics needs a good shake. And the Internet is poised to give it. No doubt, all candidates will struggle this election cycle to adapt to new media. And that’s a great thing. As candidates lose the ability to control the message (apologies to McCain-Feingold fans), real glimpses of the candidates and actual substance could emerge.
The prospect of a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton presidential succession is a damning commentary on the health of our political process. Individual merits – like leadership, ideas, and character – matter less than simply being handed the keys to the political machine. Instead of citizens having broad electoral choices, political machines simply pass around presidencies like cold sores during spring break.
Given that wretched situation, I watch Obama with fascination. The Clinton machine inevitably will secure the Democratic nomination for Hillary – unless Obama can rattle and reinvent the system and bring in new participants by the terabyte. Obama’s campaign, though, is having difficulties breaking out of the old school top-down command-control system and fully embracing new media types who naturally are inclined to help him. At old school politics, he gets crushed. We’ll have to see if he adapts to the new media.
The prospect of a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton presidential succession is a damning commentary on the health of our political process. Individual merits – like leadership, ideas, and character – matter less than simply being handed the keys to the political machine. Instead of citizens having broad electoral choices, political machines simply pass around presidencies like cold sores during spring break.
Given that wretched situation, I watch Obama with fascination. The Clinton machine inevitably will secure the Democratic nomination for Hillary – unless Obama can rattle and reinvent the system and bring in new participants by the terabyte. Obama’s campaign, though, is having difficulties breaking out of the old school top-down command-control system and fully embracing new media types who naturally are inclined to help him. At old school politics, he gets crushed. We’ll have to see if he adapts to the new media.
posted by steve u. at 6/21/2007
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2 Comments:
Disclaimer: I'm the Chair of the grassroots Utah for Obama group. That having been said, I saw a Fox News reporter protest because they couldn't attend a private event. And that's what this blogger ran into. No one from the campaign asked if he blogged, but by announcing that he was a blogger, he received the same treatment any other member of the press would have.
And the MySpace thing was silly. Joe essentially volunteered the MySpace page, and the campaign had to take it over - not doing so had already caused problems, and was on it's way to causing legal problems. Everything was eventually settled to everyone's satisfaction. While I can understand Joe being upset that it was being taken over, asking for money at that point was a bad reaction on his part.
Misty,
I'm not sure you're characterizing the Joe Anthony event correctly. Last I saw (about 2 weeks ago), Joe Anthony definitely was not satisfied. In fact, he was not sure he would vote for Obama.
And I don't think it's fair to say Joe messed up by asking for money. It seems to be established that the campaign asked him to provide a figure for which he'd go away.
All that being said, I don't mean to be negative on Obama. He likely "gets it" more than the other candidates regarding the Internet. My opinion is that he seriously bungled this one and set himself back. But the larger point I intended to make is how difficult it is for candidates to navigate new media issues. And, again, I think it's wonderful. The more media we have, the more likely we are to get good information.
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