When Republican Herbert Hoover and Democrat Alfred E Smith ran for President in 1928, little did they know that they were active participants in what might well be considered the first modern Presidential race. At the time, their use of novelties such as radio commer-cials and sound newsreels was radical. So who can guess what they would make of the current trends in American campaigning?
Each electoral cycle US politicos look for new ways to appeal to voters and potential sup-porters – the better to bolster the coffers and coffee mornings of their candidates. Whether it’s Karl Rove and the Republicans’ using study groups and Minister-directed dis-cussions for below-the-radar faith group grooming, or the hip and happening young De-mocratic things wandering the virtual corridors and meeting places of Facebook and Bebo for likely recruits, the big beasts of American politics are looking for new ways to connect with an increasingly jaded and disconnected electorate.
Millions of Americans, and young people around the world, are joining social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook, Myspace, Veoh, Flickr, Eventful.com, Meetup.com and Twitter – sharing images, videos, music and networks online. And following the lead of presidential hopefuls Ralph Nader in 2000 and Democrat Howard Dean in 2004, political campaigners have begun to realise the opportunity these platforms offer them to push their candidates and gain donors, volunteers and votes for the coming months.
Internet Campaigner and ex-Deaniac Campaign Director Joe Trippi says that the growth of online campaigning will engage hard-to-enthuse groups and re-engage those who are cur-rently disillusioned with organized politics by working with communities to develop policies and messages that better represent them. It certainly provides a new arena for wonks to target, but are these social-geeks really looking to get involved, or just to get a cheap laugh? In a blend of old and new media, YouTube.com – the three-year-old video-sharing website – co-sponsored a presidential debate on Monday night (23 July) with news veter-ans CNN. The debate gave Democratic candidates the opportunity to respond to ques-tions uploaded to YouTube and cnn.com as phone and video messages and showed the mainstream TV audience the tip of the virtual iceberg.
With 15 months to go, we’ve already had a taste of what we can expect in the way of standard Internet campaigning: Democrat front-runner Hilary Clinton’s homage to The Sopranos featuring hubby Bill flew around the virtual communities of YouTube and MySpace. Viral advertising without the costs of TV advertising or the restriction of limited, regional media markets will no doubt be a strong feature of campaigns in the months to come. And direct mail has taken a new direction too. Late last week Clinton chose to mail out DVDs outlining her plan to end the war in Iraq to Iowa voters rather than buying TV ads there.
But with the good comes the not so good, and sometimes even the devilish. It’s clear that the negative campaigning for which US Presidential campaigning is renowned has also found a home online. And for something to “go viral” it has to be attention grabbing, and usually funny – usually at the expense of the person being featured.
A remix of an Orwellian “1984” advert run by Apple computers in 1984 posted on YouTube in March has so far received over three and a half million hits, not to mention the associ-ated free column inches. Democrat Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama denies that his people were involved in posting the mash-up (a mix of original and new footage blended together) which replaces video images of Big Brother in the original ad with those of Clinton, ending with an iPod-wearing female athlete running through the crowds of sub-dued masses to liberate them from the overseer (Clinton), smashing the screen to reveal an Obama campaign logo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo
The anonymity of internet-based campaigning and the relative lack of regulation makes it far easier for campaigns to separate their official podcasts and presidential-style position statements from more dubious campaigning – allowing them to simultaneously distance themselves, whilst reaping the benefit. Candidates for the presidency in 2008 have a far wider range of media in which they can spread dirty but memorable comments, sound-bites and video clips.
With fundraising figures for the second quarter if this year just in, Obama has raised some $32.8m while Clinton, who is ahead in the polls, raised $27m, and New York’s ex-mayor Rudolph Giuliani led the Republican candidates with $17.5m. The figures show that their supporters are willing and able to back big-name candidates with enough cash for sophis-ticated and expensive campaigns.
Time will tell whether the users of new technology are as important as the traditional foot soldiers of presidential campaigns. Whilst California, Washington and New York may be open to new methods of campaigning, the traditionally more conservative states of Mon-tana, the Dakotas and Missouri may take a little more persuading.
APRIL-JUNE 2007 FUNDRAISING
Barack Obama (D) – $32.8m
Hillary Clinton (D)- $27.1m
Rudolph Giuliani (R) – $17.5m
Mitt Romney (R) – $14m
John McCain (R) – $11.2m
John Edwards (D) – $9m
Source: reports filed to the US Federal Election Commission
Current candidates:
Democratic Party:
Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator from New York and Former First Lady
Christopher Dodd, U.S. Senator from Connecticut
John Edwards, Former U.S. Senator from North Carolina and 2004 Democratic Vice
Presidential candidate
Mike Gravel, Former U.S. Senator from Alaska
Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio
Barack Obama, U.S. Senator from Illinois
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico
Republican Party:
Sam Brownback, U.S. Senator from Kansas
Rudy Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York
Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas
Duncan Hunter, U.S. Representative from California
John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona
Ron Paul, U.S. Representative from Texas
Mitt Romney, Former Governor of Massachusetts
Tom Tancredo, U.S. Representative from Colorado
Tommy Thompson, Former Governor of Wisconsin and Former Secretary of Health and Human Services