Washington Post political reporter Jose Antonio Vargas writes today about the continued intersection of politics and the Internet in the Age of Obama. He observes, “what was so striking about the longest presidential campaign in history was the impact that everyday people had on setting its round-the-clock narrative.”
He notes, “the Web is an uncontrollable, freewheeling medium. The Internet is not TV. You don’t just sit back and yell at the screen; you sit up and write back at the screen. And you can also sit back — click, click, click, scroll, scroll, scroll — and think for yourself.”
It is true that the Internet has completely changed politics. A few months back I was asked what things we might learn from Mr. Obama’s campaign. I said that he changed the way campaigns are run and he changed the way campaigns are won. Of course, in 1992, this was said about the Clinton campaign, particularly when people started talking about the famous War Room and the tactic of rapid response.
But this was pre-Internet; pre-blogs; pre-You Tube. Mr. Obama employed 90 people on his Internet team. That’s an overwhelming number and they were integrated into every aspect of the campaigns operations. But it makes sense if you consider the value that’s available to candidates online: money, organizing, money.
Have we crossed a new threshold in American presidential politics? Yes. And Mr. Vargas is spot-on when he opines, “because of technology in general and the Internet in particular, politics has become something tangible. Politics is right here. You touch it; it’s in your laptop and on your cellphone. You control it, by forwarding an e-mail about a candidate, donating money or creating a group.”