THE battle for the hearts and wallets of the American voters in the 2008 presidential election campaign is increasingly being fought on the World Wide Web.
Candidates like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson have signed up on social networking sites such as Friendster, Facebook and MySpace.
Obama, still a sizzling hot candidate, has so many friends on one site that they outnumber the population of Subang Jaya three times over.
And online donations, according to The New York Times, are a cornerstone of the fund-raising efforts of Obama, Clinton and former senator John Edwards.
They reportedly raised at least US$28mil (RM96.2mil) through Internet donations in the first six months of this year.
Incidentally, spendings by the 17 candidates are made known to the public to almost the most minute degree. Of all the presidential hopefuls, John McCain spent the most on Dunkin’ Donuts, Obama has the highest Starbucks and pizza bills, while Clinton incurred the most at Ikea stores.
And four days ago, there was much buzz about the groundbreaking debate where voters sent in their questions through videos to YouTube for the eight Democratic candidates.
“You’ve never seen a debate like this before: the candidates answer your video questions,” a full-page newspaper advertisement by CNN and YouTube said. Republican candidates will have their turn on Sept 17.
This online video approach is now seen as a breakthrough, altering the traditional medium even further and giving a voice for citizen journalists out there.
Bloggers, as expected, believe their constant online postings helped change the climate of the campaign.
They are of the view that former Republican senator George Allen (of the macaca – meaning “monkey” in francophone African nations – controversy) would have retained his seat last year had he not been caught on tape for using the slur, and had bloggers not kept the issue alive.
“Although some stories originated from the mainstream media, it’s the blogs that drive the interest on an issue. There is a limited news cycle in the newspapers,” said K. Daniel Glover, the editor of National Journal’s Technology Daily.
In fact, journalists from the traditional medium often turn to blogs to get ideas or quotes, he told a group of foreign journalists during a talk in Washington DC recently.
As Glover put it, he spends a lot of time reading blogs and going through public documents before posting an article.
Bloggers, he said, need to get their facts right.
“If people read it and find that it is wrong, the credibility of the blogger goes down,” he said.
However, he did not think that bloggers, being free-spirited people, would agree to a code of conduct.
“We try to change the way media operates. We want it to be more open and more transparent,” said Matt Stoller, a DC-based political activist and consultant.
“Who’s creating the standards for traditional media?” he asked.
The answer, he said, was bloggers.
Feel free to object, but like it or not, it is all happening online in the race to the White House. Edwards reportedly gave bloggers wide access, as well as opportunities to interview him.
Earlier this year, some of the candidates made the official announcement of their bid for the Oval Office not through conventional means but via videotaped messages on their websites.
In June, Hillary and Bill Clinton made a video spoof of The Sopranos finale in introducing her campaign theme song by Celine Dion.
The song was selected online by her supporters; naturally, the announcement was made on Clinton’s website as well.
As for YouTube, it is both a tool for political capital and a source of embarrassment for the candidates.
Hillary Clinton’s off-key rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner in January has been viewed 1.3 million times. In the archives as well is Edwards fussing over his hair.
So, be there or be square. Otherwise, as they say, you are only looking from the bushes.
