Filed under: General Election 2008
A cool 6-part series – only 2 parts are out though.
Just for some light reading!
Andrew’s post on the Obama train ride was absolutely amazing. To quote in full:
I cannot be alone in immediately having my mind leap to Robert Kennedy’s funeral train as I watched Obama’s Inaugural express make its way toward Washington yesterday. Forty years. The same crowds along the tracks; the same intensity of emotion – but now inverted from crippling grief to tentative hope; the connection between one human being and the millions of others who sensed and sense that he understands, like few others do, the crisis we face and the American character we now need. Here is a very affecting oral memory of that RFK train by the photographer, Robert Fusco, who helped sear it into global consciousness.
For me it feels as if history is undoing itself, as if some great, dark wound has somehow returned to be healed, before it is too late.
Another from 1968:
And yesterday:
Know hope.
(Photos by Robert Fusco in 1968 and Christopher Furlong and Chip Somodevilla 2009.)
Missing that combined with the fact that I’m missing the concert today and the Inauguration on Tuesday, makes me just wish I was home!
Filed under: Democratic Nomination 2008, General Election 2008, Republican Nomination 2008
Election 2008 revolutionized the political campaign arena that was started by Howard Dean back in 2004. Obama and Clinton used Web 2.0 technology to their advantage as a way to connect with voters and work with a wider network of Americans.
Blogs took over the news. Breaking stories (John Edwards anyone?) and starting viral political video crazes that were picked up by the MSM and aired on the 24 hour cable news stations.
From web addresses and videos, text messaging, networking (Obama for America), massive small donner online political donations (Obama for America), campaign blogging, and political blogging- this election season and these campaigns have changed the way political campaigns will be run in the future.
Unfortunately for the always campaign-savvy Republicans, they are a ways behind – could it be because the Democrats have moved onto a new generation of politicians while the Republicans are still stuck with the Boomers? Not to drag up the overused Mac vs. PC analogy, but…
From the WaPo:
… the Republican establishment hasn’t fully grasped the ways the Web is revolutionizing politics. “If you look at their site,” she said of the Obama campaign, “their online videos, their online ads, everything they did, it wasn’t about ‘me, myself and I.’ It was about ‘we’ and ‘us.’ “
It was, in essence, about you.
Yes, it was about you, me, him, us – everyone coming together to support a campaign and doing so using the tools of Web 2.0 technology to connect with our peers, interact with the campaign, and do our own little campaign work.
See the transition of Obama team logos.
I certainly believe that they made the right choice with the HOPE “O”.
Filed under: General Election 2008
Filed under: General Election 2008
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raised $104 million in the weeks around Election Day, a grand finale to a successful bid that shattered fundraising records.
Overall, Obama raised nearly $750 million during his odyssey to the presidency, and his spending in the eight weeks before the election vastly outpaced that of his Republican rival John McCain, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
$750 Million?!? That’s not too shabby. And this my friend, is why one will never pick public financing again.
Filed under: General Election 2008
