There is so much buzz going on right now about the US ´08 presidential election campaign - especially Obama´s - that it is tough work staying up to date or just collecting all the interesting stuff published out there in the "internets".
One the one hand lots of articles are looking backwards analysing the winning strategy of the Obama campaign - less McCain`s campaign so far. Here you find my first insights on the presidential campaign.
A few examples I stumbled across analysing the McCain/GOP campaign:
"A blue dot in a sea of red (or vice versa) could now make a real impact, both vote-wise and dollar-wise, to a Presidential campaign. Obama got this and McCain really didn’t." Peter Snyder via next right
"McCain’s top-down Internet tactics can’t keep up with Obama’s social networking strategy" Renee Feltz
"More important, the party is finally untethered from the ill-fitting and unworkable big-government conservatism that defined the Bush administration." Jeff Flake
And of course there is some Palin-backbiting going on, if you are interessted in that, have a look here.
One the other hand there is a puzzling and surprisingly intense debate about "what happens to the Obama network after the election" (see my article "White House 2.0") - looking forward to the promised change. The new Obama transition site Change.gov is being built by Blue State Digital. Not quite ready thoughAnd live now, but amazing how fast and well prepared they act. They seem to have a strategy for the transition and that is pretty smart. And as early adopters they don have much evidence of such a transition: The existing online communities will follow politicians into their governing roles.
"This has far more transformative potential than the fundraising juggernaut we are seeing now. Powerful communities may come to dominate the agenda of incumbent politicians providing feedback, direction and policy input." Joshua-Michele Ross
What intrigues those watching as the Obama campaign morphs into an Obama administration is how the 44th president will employ the organizational machinery and technological innovation of his campaign to advance his legislative and policy priorities. This structure was a key to his victory, but there is no direct translation to the White House. Washington Post
I wonder - and hope - that in addition to a new style of Presidential Politics we are going to see a new way of lobbying - more grassroots-style? Lobby 2.0 - to coin another tacky buzzword.
Of course this above made distinction is highly superficial, but it came just in my mind helping me to structure the high amount of output dealing with the topic of internet, communication and politics - my profession since a long time. Therefore I am realy grateful for all the new debattes about ePolitics, eParticipation etc. Especially since we are going to have our major national campaign in Germany next year - we ask ourselves how the US presidential election campaign will influence (and change) next years campaign.
