Barack Obama and the Internet

In an arguably unforeseen move (during the time of the early 2000's) the now president Barack Obama turned to technology to aid his presidential campaign. During the time of 2004, Hilary Clinton had 20,000 volunteers in Texas when it was learned that Obama launched a website prior to that - and a total of 104,000 Texans already joined to give Obama support in his presidency run. The website, called www.barackobama.com, was a multi-faceted tool that presented the viewer with a lot of information. It told them Obama's achievements, told them of the names and addresses of those who lived demographically close and even let the viewer know who in their immediate area was still undecided on who they wanted to elect the demographic candidate for presidency. This all went down in Texas which ultimately proved to be the deciding factor for the candidates; if Obama won Texas then he punched his golden ticket to be the democratic representative while if Hilary won, she may have still had a chance to win. In the end, the website proved too dominant; Obama won the state of Texas with a primary vote of 51 to 47 and an overall victory of 99 to 94. And it is no secret now that Obama is now in his second term as U.S. president.                                                                                                      

Obama's use of technology in this new field resulted in this new wave that many who came after him followed as well. Candidates like Hilary or John McCain had their own websites with click to donate tools or other ways of reaching them and discussing their motives with other supporters. But what Obama did with his own website was unprecedented; Obama's website was a blend of "top down control and anarchy" which resulted into a dominant political machine. The website was effective: it had an easy way for supporters to donate and made it into a social event. Those who donated could set their own personal targets and basically run their own campaign. The support became unreal; by 2008, the campaign raised "$200 million from more than a million online donors (Obama had raised $340 million from all sources by the end of June), and MyBO had logged more than a million user accounts and facilitated 75,000 local events, according to Blue State Digital." To make the website even more interactive, there was videos that can be watched of Obama's speeches and marches as well supportive songs from famous music artists that reached millions and millions of views. All of the support and popularity that Obama and other candidates have garnered over time is largely due to the internet and the exposure that it came with and has now become an important tool.