Obama Casts A Wide Net

The Nation: Democrat's Web Strategy Turns Out His Supporters, And Could Deliver The Nomination

(The Nation)  This column was written by Ari Melber.

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Despite the different outcomes for his campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, Barack Obama won among young voters in both states — and more important, he drew them to the polls in unprecedented numbers. People under 30 made up a third of his support in Iowa — four times the margin of victory — and their turnout was up 19 percentage points from 2004 in New Hampshire. Obama has inspired them, just as Howard Dean did last cycle, but the Chicago organizer's campaign excelled by using technology that mobilized new and young voters to actually show up and be counted.

In Iowa, Obama's aides systematically used the popular social networking site Facebook for targeting and organizing. Allison York, a 20-year-old Obama supporter and student at Iowa's Drake University, spent six hours of her winter break driving from her parents' Wichita home to Des Moines to a caucus location she found through Facebook. Another student launched a Facebook challenge that recruited more than a million supporters for Obama across the country. And one field organizer created a group for Iowans pledging to caucus for Obama — the first web version of the famous "supporter cards" that candidates urge voters to sign — drawing more than 1,000 people who were not in the party database. "We try to just go where the people are," explained Obama's online organizer in Iowa. "Facebook, because of its size, is where the people are, which is why we've taken it so seriously as a campaign."

Obama's official Facebook profile has about 200,000 "friends" — more than triple Hillary Clinton's network and six times John Edwards's yield. Clinton's top strategists once mocked those numbers, telling reporters, "Our people look like caucus-goers [and Obama's] look like Facebook." But after Clinton placed third in Iowa, they hastily tried to catch up. She toured New Hampshire with students, held "roundtables with young undecided voters," talked up a new idea for a "government blogging team" and launched an "Ask Hillary" Facebook feature on the day of the New Hampshire debate (which was co-sponsored by Facebook and ABC News). Those efforts paid off, giving her a boost among young people above her Iowa showing, but it's probably too late for her to overtake Obama in organic online support. Beyond Facebook, Obama has the most friends on MySpace and BlackPlanet — about 630,000 combined — and the most traffic by far on YouTube, where people can watch him sans media filter. (After Obama's stirring Iowa victory speech was uploaded, his official channel alone spiked by more than 1.5 million views.) Obama is also remarkably popular on apolitical Internet terrain. He regularly ranks atop Eventful, an entertainment site that helps fans join forces to request local concerts by their favorite bands. He netted appearance requests from eighty towns in Iowa and has held his own against rock stars across the country, currently ranking third behind the rap group Wu-Tang Clan.

Obama's aides have not simply been riding a wave of hit websites; they also built their own social networking portal to connect and empower activists. Chris Hughes, a 24-year-old co-founder of Facebook, joined the Obama campaign to build MyBO, which invites users to network, blog and promote grassroots events. Unlike many campaigns that treat web politics as a separate silo, Obama's field program is tightly integrated with MyBO. Iowa organizers were required to post all their events on the site and encouraged to write MyBO blog posts, vetted by the campaign, about local efforts. And the campaign trusts supporters to post whatever they want, from house parties to fundraising ideas to blog commentaries. More than 350,000 people have already created MyBO accounts, posting more than 10,000 grassroots events offline, including 1,000 gatherings where supporters simply wear Obama buttons and do community service in their neighborhoods. No other campaign has a decentralized program like it. While young participants are active, the majority of users, according to the site's administrator, appear to be middle-aged women.

Cheryl Kimmel, 48, is a self-declared "Deaniac" who first learned about Obama when Dean fundraised for Obama's 2004 Senate primary. This month, Kimmel used MyBO to announce a house party for undecided voters. "It's a good way to reach out to people that may be interested but that aren't in the fold," she explained. MyBO is not just for Deaniacs. Frank Dickerson voted for Bush's re-election, but the 59-year-old "recovering Republican" has used it for the past four months to organize events and phone banks at his North Carolina home. His MyBO invitation after Obama's Iowa victory recruited seven new people in a single day, he said, and he is coordinating volunteer trips to South Carolina for the upcoming primary. It's the first time he has ever been politically active.

This kind of self-starting activism could be crucial on February 5, the largest Super Tuesday ever, with primaries in twenty-two states. It is impossible to visit or buy advertising in every state. "Twenty states and all you've got is the candidate on a tarmac — frankly there's not a whole lot that paid media can do," predicts Joe Trippi, who ran Dean's Internet strategy and now works for Edwards. "The traditional old-style top-down centralized campaign structure doesn't work [for this schedule]," he adds, so the key is "to decentralize."

On the night of the Iowa caucuses, Obama's organizers blasted thousands of cellphone text messages to the supporters they had meticulously identified. Younger voters were offered rides. Precinct captains got turnout projections in real time, so they could show undecided caucus attendees that there was statewide momentum. The campaign mobilized others by texting a classic Obama quote, the kind of simple declaration that can sound vague or inspiring, depending on how much idealism you have left: "'In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it' — Barack. One hour until Caucus starts! Be there by 6:30pm & bring 3 friends!" Hours later, more texts went out by cellphone. One urged tens of thousands of supporters across the country to watch the victory speech on television, while a local message announced victory to exhausted volunteers across Iowa, many of whom were still at their caucus sites. The text replies poured in swiftly. "I have tears of joy in my eyes!" wrote one volunteer at 9:14 pm, and another banged out an exhilarating revelation: "I am so happy & excited for the usa! I can not believe it is about politics! Obama for President!"

[kansas1946]

The supporters of this low-IQ type, who is brain-impaired from extensive drug use, and is equally lacking in knowledge and experience, should realize that they are repeating history.
*******************************************

Are you ''effing kidding. BRAIN-IMPAIRED??????? Have you checked his grades in college and law school. Have you listened to him speak. That we should be so lucky to have this quality of human for president after what we have suffered for seven years. Brain-impaired....LMAO...

[tibu987]

Obama/Richardson in ''08.

[annevilla]

"OBAMA PORTRAIT MUSIC VIDEO" on Youtube - Don''t Miss It!

For those of you who still have not heard:

There is a WONDERFUL and INSPIRING music video on Youtube.com entitled "Obama Portrait Music Video by Bjarne O."
You can use the free downloaded high-quality stereo version from the composer''s website in DVD form to show at house parties and fundraisers. Even people who knew nothing at all about Obama have been moved: either a thrilling introduction, or further inspiration for those of us who already know and fight for Obama.
The music soundtrack, which incorporates excerpts from the famous 2004 speech, can also be downloaded separately in high-quality.

It is an uplifting and informative campaign tool - so please, SPREAD THE WORD!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mCPwbozpIzM

YES WE CAN

Anne

[chad55555]

In todays world being president of the USA is a joke to the world.We have declined as such a fast rate in the past 60 years that most other nations have passed us up in almost every thing.This Ombama and Clinton run is just fuel to the fire that America has lost it''s way in the world. It tells a lot about the American voter after 911 when their ready to vote a Muslim trained black in as American leader and a women that knew her husband liked other women and watched it go on for years did nothing about it.That tells you what she would do in office (NOTHING).
GET GOD(CHRISTIAN) NOT OMBAMA''S GODS BACK INTO AMERICA,START TEACHING OUR KIDS MORALS AND IT;S O K TO HELP THE OLD AND SICK AND ANY CRIME WILL BE DEALT WITH WITH EQUAL PUNISHMENT,DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOUR RACE IS NO SPECIAL TREATMENT BECAUSE YOUR DARK.THIS HAS TURNED INTO A RACEOMACRACY NOT A DEMOCRACY,WHERE DO YOU THINK HE''S GETTING HIS FUNDS FROM TO RUN,TALK SHOW HOST,BALL PLAYERS AND YES EVEN AFRICA,WHERE HIS REALITIVES STILL LIVE AND WILL BE HERE SOON. In the bible it states in the end days ETHINC GROUP WILL DECLARE WAR ON ETHINC GROUP,VOTERS OF AMERICA YOU MAKING IT HAPPEN FAST.
RETHINK AMERICA AND WHAT"S WENT WRONG,WHY SO MUCH CRIME AND WHO IS DOING MOST OF IT AND GET CHRISTIAN GOD BACK IN SCHOOLS BEFORE THERE IS NO AMERICA.SINCE EQUAL RIGHT WENT INTO EFFECT WE HAVE WENT FROM THE MELTING POT OF THE WORLD TO THE SEWER OF THE WORLD.,IT"S JUST NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA,

[croft777]

gkc99,
Your welcoming a president who doesn''t exist. lol. He''s not president yet, I don''t think he''ll get a chance to make it that far. The United States is not ready for a muslim president, who has no experience.This isn''t a job interview for McDonalds.

[gkc99]

"O-BOMBA "--Posted by USGENERAL


"O-BOMBA "--Posted by ImpeachNOW


The same Neoconscum Repug shill, trying to tell Dems what to do?

Beware the agents provocateur.

Bushit''s billionaires will do, or fund, anything to keep the Presidency from going back into the hands of people who are not puppets of Bushit''s Billionaires.

Count on it.

[gkc99]

". The majority of people in this country come from the baby boomers.Would he have a chance? I doubt it. Those baby boomers are my generation and before, I''''m the last of them, and there are many of us"--Posted by croft777


Yes there are and I''m one of them. John Kerry, a true hero of service and conscience, who served in one of the most dangerous theaters in Vietnam while Bushit hid in the Texass air force (before deserting) has endorsed Obama. Kerry''s vast email list and donator list will help Obama win the Democratic nomination and the Presidency with the help of those of us who remember when justice and peace were considered to be goals worth fighting for.

Thanks, John Kerry! And welcome to President Barack Obama.

[croft777]

Oh big deal, so he''s got the young voters. The majority of people in this country come from the baby boomers.Would he have a chance? I doubt it. Those baby boomers are my generation and before, I''m the last of them, and there are many of us.

[heartlight3]

I would be willing to bet that Barack Obama''s IQ is considerably higher than yours, ImpeachNow. You don''t get elected to be the president of the Harvard Law Review by being stupid. If you read the material he has written, both his books and the issue statements on his website, you would see that he writes clearly and eloquently and has detailed plans for dealing with our nations situation. Where do you guys get your information? From the media? or from the candidate himself?

[usgeneral-2009]

.
Many people are still confused about the massive support for O-BOMBA from the young. Hey, dude, it''s simple - we want somebody that appreciates drugs as much as we do! Aside from Ron Paul, O-BOMBA is the MOST LIKELY to legalize the weed, he is the MOST LIKELY to de-emphasize prosecution of drug use, he is the MOST LIKELY to allow "medical" use of marijuana, he is the MOST LIKELY to soften sentences for coke (his favorite refreshment) and he is the MOST LIKELY to abolish the DEA. He''s our kind of toker! VOTE YES FOR DRUGS, MAN - IT''S COOL!

.

[humaniycrtc]

"But does he know what to do about our nation''''s situation?"

But the question is, does Hillary? She voted to authorize a silly war, and now says she did so because she didn''t think that Bush would go to war? Huh? What is she, retarded?

"He hasn''''t presented a specific plan"

..that''s just a talking point, one easily debunked if yo do simple research.

"he''''s been double-teaming with Edwards to face Hillary."

She is running for president, not president of her local moose lodge - if she can''t handle a simple debate, then she can''t be our president.

"And he''''s been riding on the Media''''s biased reporting, in order to properly take on Hillary."

Kindergate, his "cocaine" use, him being a "Muslim", Hillary''s "MLK" gaffe, Bill''s rhetorical missteps. The media is simply reporting Hillary''s blunders.

"He''''s also been really smug and mocking about it, as if he''''s gone so far all by his own hands!!

..and Hillary is counting her years as first lady as actually experience.

[oriy]

Obama is intelligent. But does he know what to do about our nation''s situation? He hasn''t presented a specific plan, and in debates, and most of the elections, he''s been double-teaming with Edwards to face Hillary. And he''s been riding on the Media''s biased reporting, in order to properly take on Hillary. He''s also been really smug and mocking about it, as if he''s gone so far all by his own hands!! Tell me, will he face the republican nominated with Edwards by his side? Will the media rescue him when the republicans start rending his image?