Barack Obama's Digital War Chest

Barack Obama counts on using the e-mail addresses gathered during his campaign to communicate to the public directly, without having to go through the journalists who could one day become less enamored of him.

Supporters of Barack Obama who were unwise enough to have left their contact information with the Democratic candidate’s team are not out of the woods yet. Even if the campaign ended on November 4th with the triumphant election of the black senator from Illinois to the White House, they’re going to continue to collapse under the messages of the 44th president of the United States coming in at the same pace as the past 21 months.

“ The first digital president,” was what the American press nicknamed Barack Obama, who intends to use his coordinated telephone and e-mail databases of more than 10 million supporters collected during the primaries in order to establish a direct connection with a retooled website from White House as soon as he assumes office next January 20th. An effective way to bypass the traditional media that could no longer show itself to be as warm to him when he does not keep his promises! According to Pew Internet and the American Life Project, 46% of Americans used the Internet, e-mails or text messaging to inform themselves or to mobilize strangers for the campaign while 29% used the normal channels of television, while another 39% used cable channels to stay up-to-date.

As early as the day following his victory, he revamped his old official website that served him well during the campaign, www.barackobama.com, to a new space dedicated to the president-elect’s projects: www.change.gov to achieve that goal. Netheads can connect there to mold “their America to come” by “sharing their vision, their worries and their hopes” via e-mail or by applying for jobs in the new Obama-Biden administration. A new way to promote “transparency, responsibility and participation of American citizens in their democracy.” The team of 95 people who had fully succeeding at mobilizing supporters during the campaign via the Internet are also following leadership under the site that had largely contributed to electing Obama: the young (24 years old!) Chris Hughes, co-founder of the social networking site Facebook.

Encounters of “Direct Democracy” Observed Closely by Advisors to Nicolas Sarkozy

Moreover, the new administration has an interest, more of a claim, to establish a direct line to public opinion: it could thus be used to test its projects on a public that has already been acquired for him, asking him to try his message out on civil society or yet to encourage him to put pressure on senators and representatives when the debate in Congress concerns particularly sensitive bills. On a more modest scale, Prime Minister Gordon Brown already encourages Britons to ask him questions via YouTube. Some experiences of “direct democracy” are being observed closely by advisors of Nicolas Sarkozy. The staff of UMP means well to be inspired by Obama’s example to shore up the population in light of the French president’s election in 2012.