…Barack Obama’s presidential campaign appeared to revolutionize the way technology could be integrated into every facet of a campaign — from fundraising to media outreach to voter mobilization.

The result was a Democratic Party that outpaced its rival in nearly every measure — in the process revealing how detrimental the GOP’s apparent lack of tech fluency proved to be on Election Day.

The Republican Party is playing catch-up, hoping to compete with Democrats in the next two pivotal election cycles.

Full Article…
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/12/gop.technology/

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=384

Overall, 26% of Americans mention the internet either first or second as their main source of election news. Among young people, the internet is eroding television’s advantage as a main source for election news. Six-in-ten of those ages 18 to 29 cite television as their main source for election news, down from 75% four years ago. Over that time, the proportion citing the internet has more than doubled – from 21% to 46%.

Notably, while newspapers were mentioned more often as a campaign news source among young people four years ago, today those under age 30 are almost twice as likely to mention the internet as newspapers as where they get most of their news about the election (46% vs. 24%).

From CNET:

The share of Americans who say they “regularly learn something” about the presidential contenders from the Internet jumped to 24 percent for this election cycle, nearly double the 13 percent figure when that question was asked during the 2004 race. In 2000, the level of use was even more minuscule, at 9 percent.

And for the 18-29 demographic, perhaps unsurprisingly, the numbers are vastly different: some 42 percent of respondents said they’re learning about presidential campaigns online, which outnumbers all other news sources. Cable news networks came in second for that age group, at 35 percent.

Full story… http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9849169-7.html?tag=nefd.only

The entry of Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, as an independent candidate could see election spending for 2008 move towards $5 billion – compared with £50 million for the British general election in 2005.

Jan Baran, a Washington lawyer who specialises in campaign finance, said that the open contests for both party nominations – and intensity with which they are being fought – meant that spending would smash all previous records.

Full Article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3168726.ece

For the republicans, the impact of the Internet is less clear as no candidates have been seriously focused on using the web to an advantage. It is reported that Mitt Romney outspent Mike Huckabee 10:1 in Iowa, paying $10 million for the privilege of getting hammered in the final numbers.  How much of that was tossed into the empty hole of traditional media?

Obama gets it. His campaign is highly engaged on the Internet and right now he is on his way to spending time in the oval office. Does Huckabee get Internet politics too? Voted to the top by a base of evangelicals in Iowa, can Huckabee become an Internet evangelist to reach beyond his current constituency?

“With both Republican and Democratic presidential debates swinging into action, the politics category saw a 17-percent increase to 9 million visitors in May, making it the top-gaining category overall for the month. Traffic to Politico.com, which sponsored the Republican Presidential debate on May 3, jumped 162 percent for the month to 648,000 visitors, while MoveOn.org’s traffic surged 246 percent to 689,000 visitors due in large part to an online petition against gas price increases. Several presidential candidate websites also saw their traffic increase, led by BarackObama.com (up 13 percent to 298,000 visitors) and HillaryClinton.com (up 3 percent to 217,000 visitors).”

“What really mixes this race up is the Internet. It has the potential to make the conventions look like something from the horse and buggy days. The traditional press corps, of which I am a member, begins to look very out of touch. The Internet has power to change elections. ”

“Bloggers are critical, but they do not wield as much power as they would like. What is changing the election is the nature of the content shift from newspapers, radio and television to the Internet. ”

“More and more people are turning to the Internet to satisfy their political curiosity. ”

Read full article….

“ALL the fizz aside, new media have the capacity to create distinctions with a difference.

National politics is one of the places where that may be occurring, and that’s a possibility to which, in Mrs. Willy Loman’s unforgettable words, “attention must be paid,” especially by the country’s news media.”

“What’s really interesting about this particular moment in our nation’s electoral life is that neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates currently generating much of the interest and enthusiasm have formally declared. Both, in fact, have made themselves forces to be reckoned with by standing outside the formalized political process and communicating with voters through new and alternative media rather than traditional political journalism”

Read the full article….

 ”Now social networking is shaping up as a potent new force in the 2008 presidential campaign. Candidates are betting that the sites — existing commercial ones or their own newly created ones, like Mr. Hughes’s My.BarackObama.com will expand their power to find and mobilize supporters, particularly elusive young voters who go to the polls at much lower rates than their elders.”

“Several candidates have taken the step of actively developing their own social networks — Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards and, to a lesser extent, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Sen. McCain of Arizona — in hopes of sparking online support that can be translated into real-world donations and volunteerism. McCainSpace allows people to create home pages inside Mr. McCain’s Web site so they can recruit other people for his team and raise money. In February, Mr. McCain’s Web site attracted some 226,000 unique visitors, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, making it the most viewed Republican campaign site. But that still lagged far behind Mr. Obama, the Democratic leader, who logged 773,000 unique visitors.”

Read the full article….

 From a CNET article:

“Online political campaigning has come a long way since Howard Dean’s turkey sandwich fund-raiser. ”

“Campaignforce mash-ups may even replace the need for college volunteers to serve as online media watchdogs. Using Web-based APIs (application program interfaces) Campaignforce can tell politicians the YouTube views for Barack Obama, searches for Sam Brownback on Google, or how many articles on John McCain have appeared on Yahoo News. It also works to manage staffers and volunteers in coordination with get-out-the-vote efforts and campaign events, while monitoring the campaign trail with Google Maps.”

“Salesforce.com said an incarnation of its program is already being used by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.”  read full article…