A Political Glimpse from Ireland

The Internet Wins Elections

I am not sure whether that will hold true for this election but I believe it will be a major factor in Senator Obama winning the Presidential election in November. The Internet is truly an amazing tool and is integrated into every part of our lives from the cellphones we carry to the various other internet enabled devices that we see popping up in every day life. Not too long ago I remember people scoffing at the idea of an internet enable fridge or dryer but these changes are inevitable in a society that is pushing the envelope for connectivity. I personally love it, and I would say the majority of my generation do so which would explain the exorbitant amounts of money that companies have paid for social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo.

The next logical step for the candidates is to make sure that they have a presence on these sites which both candidates do but Senator Obama has the dominating presence on sites like Facebook and Myspace. From Ben Adler at Politico:

Obama has also built a formidable network of online supporters and activists. As of Tuesday, his my.barackobama.com social networking site had 926,000 members, and he had 946,568 Facebook supporters.

McCain, by contrast, had 141,183 Facebook supporters, and his McCain Space online sign-up contains the dispiriting sentence fragment: “Benefits of joining Team McCain include:” - with nothing following. McCain spokesman Joseph Pounder said only that they have “tens of thousands of members,” on McCain Space.

I don’t think the internet is as relevant to Senator McCain’s campaign given that his key demographic is not the youth vote. That has not stopped him from attempting to counter the democratic assault against his record. I was just reading the end of the Politico article and they state that Senator McCain encourages Republicans to read the DailyKos and leave relevant comments. I find that so laughable because the DailyKos  is as liberal as they come and I don’t imagine too many republican commentators would feel comfortable within the masses of anti-McCain liberals.

According to opensecrets.org; Senator Obama has spent $6,393,767 compared to Senator McCain $1,496,082 on internet media. This is a massive discrepancy in spending but I will give Senator McCain credit for not attempting to compete with Senator Obama online. It would be an easy trap to fall for but is it a trap? According to the PEW Internet and American Life Project:

More people are relying on the internet for news and information about the relevant political campaigns but do these people trust the information that they find?

Apparently people do not trust the information that they find online which is an accurate feeling given the smear campaigns on both sides of the isle. I am wondering who this is a greater loss to? People like myself would love to search for a candidate and just simply find out the truth about him as opposed to the various lies spouted by the media and other organizations with a vested interest in the outcome of a general election. This is where Senator Obama’s anti-smear site is a stroke of sheer brilliance, the best way to encourage people to participate in your campaign while limiting the damage online is with such a site. Senator McCain has not contemplated this idea because as I mentioned earlier, his demographic does not fall within the majority of internet users in America. Given that fact I think this just might be the year that the Internet wins it for a candidate.