onObama

Andrew Montgomery

I like what David Talbot talks about. I truly feel that Obama really won by the social technology. David talks about MyBO.com and how it gatherd millions in donations and showed how much young supporters they had. With Obama using social technology in my opinion it gave young adults meaning to voting, they felt for once like they were truly involved and that they had the power to create change, as obamas social network thrived to drill in everyones head was "change". David Talbot is correct Hillary Clinton and McCain did not even come close to touching Obamas social network which we all know that social network played a immense part on Obamas campaign. David talks about how Americans are able to acess media online, alot easier then anything els. He claims 55% of the U.S population has broadband internet connection at home. So with Obama having a huge social network and a good campaign going you can imagine thats winning the hearts of atleast half the population. If you ask me David Talbot made me relize that one of the reasons Obama did win was because he has such a sucessful social technology campaign. He truly was all over the web, as the other candidates were not nearly online as much as Obama was. The question you ask your self now is if Obama didnt have a massive social network online would he still have won?

Jing Wang I agree that Obama gained lots of advantage from the social technology that David Talbot mentioned. However, I still believe that the social technology is not the main factor to Obama's winning. It is obvious that the network technology has made information and interaction much easier to go through, but the content itself should be given the most credit. Since the presidential election has become a culture of the country. I'm assuming the majority people who care about it will make some time to sit down and evaluate from TV and other common medias as well. I am not ignoring the benefit Obama got from such strong networking technology. However, I don't agree that he would have lost if he had not have the networking technology. I think the technology was acting as a double edged sword. The outcome was really depends on what they put in. To be more specific, if the information they put in was negative or immature, it could be easily turned against them. An efficient tool could mean nothing if the user doesn't know how to use it or even worth if the user use it wrong.

Response - James gedling I’d have to say Jiang is correct for the most part. Obama could have used alien technology to be able to go to the homes of every American and talk to them individually and give them his campaign speeches, but if they didn’t agree with his view I doubt any amount of awareness of his views would sway their opinion. The use of networking technology may make it so your message spreads further and faster than the competition, but ultimately it will be the persuasive power of the message that will get people to vote for him or not. Take Palin’s turkey pardoning. I doubt there is more than a small percentage of Americans who aren’t fully away of what happened at that incident, it got her immersive face time on news networks and newspapers. But I rather doubt it was in any way helpful to the republican campaign. Wide spread isn’t always a beneficial thing.

Response John S. Rampersaud Obama used all the tools of media to his advantage, setting-up his campaign to ensure his victory in the presidential election. He showed that he could use every source of media to show his thanks and support of the people. Yes, the internet was not the deciding factor it was his desire and perseverance the helped him surpass his competition.

 I really have to agree with Jing, there's a lot more to Obama's win then just social networking tools. That might have made some some difference in the primaries, but by and large his theme of "Change" resonated with a large group of people who had become disaffected with the previous 8 years of the Bush administration, as well as an economy that was crashing and burning. And to paraphrase Jing, a misused tool is a useless tool indeed.
 * Jeffery Reynolds**

Jose Vargas i agree that obamas win is because of social network, but i dont entirely agree that that was the entire reason. if i can state my opinion on this is, i think i believe that obama won mostly because he was of adifferent race than every other president that we have had in the U.S. i agree with jing on this one where the technology was acting like a double edge sword. i really do believe that that is the main reason why obama won the election though. no matter what he could've done or said that he was gonna do, the "change" that he was ranting about was because he is a different race than the other presidents. thats what i honestly believe that thats why he won the election. after he won the election thats when people were saying "change has come" when he hasn't done anything at that moment.

Karen Henry

Poignant is the word I would use for Obama's campaign. He used the right tools, had the right message, had the right education and background. He figured out that the pulse of the nation could be taken through social networking and used the medium to the best of its ability. His use of text messaging, facebook, email etc.. in ways made his campaign at once intimate and global. It does not take much time to compose and send an email or text message, but the fact that one text message can reach so many people in almost real time makes the medium unlike any other. Obama seemed connected where McCain seemed out of touch, not hooked up, or tuned in. And at that moment in history we needed someone who knew how to connect to the real people as opposed to the politically connected.

Peter Quattrociocchi III I was surprised to read that McCain never uses e-mail. I think the fact that Obama uses the internet much more and more proficiently was definitly a key reason for his victory. He also resonated well with young voters, in my opinion, more-so than his opponent. Why wouldn't someone who understands and uses the tools of our age not have been better off?