Posted on 03/01/2010 6:47:22 PM PST by rabscuttle385
President Barack Obama's savvy use of technology during the 2008 campaign helped pave the way to the White House, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) acknowledged during an interview with The Hill.
When asked what Obama did right on the campaign trail that he wished he had done, McCain said, "I think President Obama did many things right. I think one was that he's an incredibly articulate speaker, and motivational, and I think that was extremely helpful to him, not only in the general election but in his primary."
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Obama outspent McCain almost 4-1. McCain took public financing because he had to, not out of principle. Obama raised almost half of his money from internet contributions, and an even greater percentage of his war chest for the primaries came in from internet contributions. If you don't think that in and of itself is a technological milestone, you're missing the point.
Oh, STFU, John.
Karl Rove was very effective in 2000 and 2004 because of the database the GOP had built and the ability to leverage it. Obama upped that in 2008 due to the ability to reach into the viral network and create something out of nothing.
I really wish the Conservatives would adopt some of that approach to try things like a Flash Mob in DC to protest the pending health care legislation, etc.
In essence, what happened right here on FR in the 2000 election and the FLorida situation did the same thing. But, early adopters and early majority, in other words - activists - have moved beyond forum to Twitter, etc.
I gain more knowledge today from Tweetdeck with search terms and followers than I do in most other areas. I follow FR on Twitter...just wish it would post all news...
Honestly McCain.
Thanks for selecting Sarah Palin and all. But really. You are in denial, and not helping America any more.
It wasn’t that Obama ran a brilliant campaign.
It’s that you s_ck as a conservative. Seriously McCain. I’m a libertarian, and I’m more conservative than you are.
Again praising the Messiah.
Why can’t he JUST SHUT UP?
McCain: Obama good, Hayworth scum.
That’s McCain’s MO, hating conservatives and loving communists.
McPain is trying to court the large minority of Obama-bots in AZ.
Wasn’t McPain’s McCain-Feingold-GWB law a factor too in his loss, but mostly he lost because the American people wouldn’t buy the dog food he was peddling.
I think internet fund raising was the key, not so much twitter, facebook organizing type stuff. Internet contributions can be ambiguous and almost impossible to trace to the real source.
"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.� -- Author Unknown
shhhh!. Don’t let the McLame haters hear you say that. They need to believe it was just because McLame is a RINO that he lost.
The Dems took control on message, they used technology and web 2.0 tactics brilliantly and they looked light years ahead of the Repups.
Yeah...and now Obomba has OFA (Organizing For America)...his campaign list to send blast emails to continually....promoting his wonderfulness...
I'd say you're the one who has missed the point, which is that McCain is looking for any explanation for his loss that doesn't include the fact the he ran a lousy campaign. And I'd bet his staff made use of modern communications, whether McCain was aware of it or not.
Obama had had the fundraising advantage throughout the campaign, yet he was behind when the financial crisis broke. McCain defeated himself with his hapless and confused behavior during that crisis, and the fact that he delivered mediocre to poor debate performances. The money advantage did not win the campaign for Obama, but McCain's poor performance during the final weeks and during the three debates, and that was the period when the most important exposure to the voters was free.
And Howard Dean, not Obama, was the first to make very effective us of the internet for fundraising.
If you mean to conservative Republicans or patriotic Americans? The answer is always YES ---McQueeg loves to praise liberals & socialists and to harshly criticize conservatives & patriots.
I don't know how someone lives thru POW camp but in McCain's case it was probably because he knew how to suck up to people even the enemy...
I am so sick of these lifetime politicians....
Stockholm. Retire .
Modern communications? Yep, McCain's camp I'm sure had cellphones, and laptops and internet connectivity. That's not what we're talking about. And, the fact that you don't understand the impact of technology as an enabler, or the breakthroughs and pioneering technologies developed and employed either by or for his campaign, says you don't understand the issue any better than the Republican National Committee.
Communications is what McCain was talking about, and what I was talking about.
"The second thing I would give him credit for — and there are many things I would give him credit for — is the very excellent use of modern technology. I mean, people would text-message immediately. Everybody was connected by e-mail. They used Twitter. They used Facebook. They did a very excellent job of modern telecommunications," McCain said.
I'm addressing what McCain said. You're off on a tangent about fundraising which he didn't mention, and which was not the reason he lost. He was winning until he himself blew it near the end, despite the difference in finances and spending.
McCain, every inch the Useful/Useless Idiot/Gentleman.
As classic an example as American Politics has ever had or will ever need to have on the fecklessness and folly of the conceit of ‘reaching across the aisle’ to work with people who would never reach across the aisle to work with the people John McCain has contempt for (other Republicans who happen to be conservative). The Stockholm Syndrome has never left him. As he put it “I was my country’s man”.
He became the embodiment of the sell-out who got a bigger kick out of being put on the altar of the enemy, than of earning the respect of those who thought they were his friends.
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