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Election 08 and the Internet
"It couldn't have happened without the Web. What happened in the election opens up a whole new range of possibilities. Now's the time to really move swiftly to exploit these new possibilities."
"A reason why the political system hasn't been operating very well until this election is the deadening influence of the TV medium as it has been operating. It's very much in its infancy, barely beginning. We aren't many years away from TV sinking into the digital world and becoming a part of it. The social activism that's made possible by these new tools is just beginning to take off."
More from Internet News, which covered the role of the internet in this election, at the Web 2.0 Summit in SF.
"And to buy that time, you're interrupting people watching football games and soap operas - this is stuff people wanted to watch."
From Arianna Huffington:
"If not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be President or even the democratic nominee. His ability to galvanize and fund raise [on the Web]was incredibly sophisticated." She claimed bloggers forced the McCain campaign to stop repeating that Sarah Palin rejected the so-called "bridge to nowhere" government boondoggle as governor of Alaska.
SF Mayor Gavin Newsome commented:
"Now I'm more concerned with what does it mean when we can this unfiltered conversation with people … and how will it help construct public policy? Last year I ran for reelection and looked out at this big rally, and said to someone 'Who are these people' and was told 'Those are your friends on Facebook.' And I said, 'What's that? I'm obsessed with Facebook, it's an extraordinary tool. I want someone who is a fanatic and motivated to participate. Most politicians don't understand the capacity of these tools. The fear I have now is that we've entered a phase where everything you say is recorded. It's the YouTubeification of the world. I have to watch myself on YouTube singing 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco', and I can't get it to go away – and I'm desperate too."
Summit organizers said they invited Republican strategists Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich to participate, but they declined.
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Thanks DiAnne. I agree. The internet made it possible. Made it happen. So many things are possible that it's frightening. But so many things are possible that it's exhilerating.
Using the internet, Barack Obama and all of you who volunteered for him, were able to put him into office. Had the people been at the mercy of Fox News they'd be still wondering about Obama's religion and friendships past and present.
I'm wondering if the media will reorganize and understand that people - ordinary, everyday people - want real information. Real truth. Not some sensational beat up like the so-called muslim school that Obama was supposed to have attended when he was a little boy. The school that is non sectarian. The real school. Not the media dream-up school. And if he went to a muslim school when he was a little boy, he'd have said so. Because what's wrong with that? What's wrong with being a muslim?
Thanks to all the groups and all the sites out there getting the truth to all Obama was able to wage a political campaign that would have been impossible a few years ago. AND this proves, too that the people have made an excellent choice to have elected a man who understands the internet, its power and its problems.
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The biggest thing about the internet is that youtube and the comedy stations were able to get the truth out!
In 2000-2004, it was less so!
The wonderful thing about the internet is egalitarianism ( I think that is a word), and more people participated than have so in the past. It only makes sense that a candidate who espoused that ideal would be the one to most benefit from the web.