Posted on 12/13/2010 6:07:36 AM PST by markomalley
Well, we can expect at least one part of the economy to boom in the next two years: Some observers believe President Obama will raise -- and spend -- over $1 billion in his likely re-election campaign.
Obama raised a record $745 million in his 2008 run, the Washington Post reports, dwarfing Sen. John McCain's $368 million. Two-thirds of Obama's funds were raised online, and with the increased influence of the Internet in politics, that amount could easily be topped next time around, says Ben Ginsberg, a former adviser to 2008 GOP candidate Mitt Romney.
Plus, past elections show a statistical progression indicating that the $1 billion mark isn't far-fetched. In 2004, George W. Bush raised $367 million to Sen. John Kerry's $328 million.
The Post notes that a key difference in the '04 and '08 campaigns was that Obama opted out of public financing for the general election, which allowed him to maximize his appeal to previously untapped groups and individuals energized by his candidacy. In the final months of the campaign, his fundraising advantage allowed him to overwhelm McCain on television in every swing state. Given that precedent, neither major party candidate is expected to participate in the public financing system in 2012.
Mobile Technology will Be Key In The Next Race To The White House
http://shilpika.wordpress.com/ 4/22/2010
Posted by Shilpika in Response Posts.
Barely six months into the new presidency and political strategists are already planning ahead for the 2012 elections. The 2008 elections saw technology and the Internet catapult a fairly unknown senator into the limelight and into the Oval Office.
“The game-changer in the Obama campaign…was that technology was not an add-on: It represented a carefully considered element of almost every critical campaign function,” says EchoDitto’s Michael Silberman.
Silberman Offers Insight Into Facebook Voter Mobilization on ReadWriteWeb.com
November 1, 2010 http://www.echoditto.com/press/michael-silberman-offers-insight-facebook-voter-mobilization-readwritewebcom
The debate surrounding social media’s impact on politics continues across the web and Tuesday’s election will once again put to test, in this case Facebook’s, ability to generate results in the polls. more
According to an article on politicsmagazine.com, new technologies by 2012 will only serve to level the playing field, regardless of the candidate’s resources.
http://www.politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/march-2009/2012-welcome-to-the-campaign-of-tomorrow/
“The availability of low-cost video devices, video websites with social networking features and even mobile devices with one-button upload capabilities will allow voters more engagement. Campaigns will have the capacity to act or react, respond, pinpoint and address the questions that specific voters care most about.”
While sophisticated technology and innovative social media tools will be pivotal to the next elections, advanced mobile technology will probably have the most significant impact on the race to the White House.
The tech-savvy Obama team used mobile technology extensively during the 2008 elections from iPhone applications to geo-targeted text messages to connect with voters.
However, technological advancements in mobile technology will completely revolutionize political campaigning in the future.
Smart phones will get cheaper and more sophisticated. Like Moore’s law suggests: Computation gets twice as fast and half as cheap every two years. Mobile networks and platforms, too, will be more robust and cost-effective.
Mobile giving – donations through cellphones, now restricted mainly to charitable organizations may become an integral fundraising tool for the next elections. Mobile phone owners may even be able to use their handsets to cast votes within the next few years. Recruiting volunteers, organizing rallies and monitoring elections through mobile services will not be uncommon, too.
Digital content, social networks in particular, will increasingly be accessed and distributed through mobile devices. eMarketer forecasts that over 800 million people worldwide will be participating in a social network via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007 allowing users to actively engage with digital content. http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000489
Accessibility, speed and cost-effective mobile technology will equip the common man with tools to influence opinion and drive change in the 2012 presidential race.
As Jonathan Spalter, Chairman of Mobile Future, puts it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-spalter
“Anyone involved in political organizing should look at the growth of mobile communication as the next Holy Grail of American and grassroots advocacy.”
Amen.
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2012: Welcome to the Campaign of Tomorrow
http://www.politicsmagazine.com/magazine-issues/march-2009/2012-welcome-to-the-campaign-of-tomorrow/
Even as we celebrate the dawn of a new presidential administration, political strategists are already looking ahead to 2012. While the political industry has traditionally been a laggard when it comes to the adoption of new technology, the advances made in the 2008 election signal that more and faster change is coming. Political campaigning will be revolutionized four years from now.
Perhaps the greatest impact will be accessibility. New technologies will further level the playing field, no matter a candidate’s resources. The technologies will make both online and offline mediums more affordable. An underdog Senate candidate will be able to better compete with a deep-pocketed incumbent by advertising efficiently through more strategic targeting and more direct engagement with voters.
Targeting
The next wave of candidates will reach an individual within a single household with a distinct message addressing that individual’s singular lifestyle, preferences and political ideology. As a result of addressable advertising technology currently being developed, voters will see fewer and fewer ads that don’t address their own specific concerns. A single, 30-year old, conservative-leaning male working in finance may see an ad for a candidate’s fiscal policy more regularly than his neighbor, a 35-year old, working mother of two, who may instead see an ad addressing the candidate’s education policy.
Just as we saw the Obama campaign experiment with advertising in video games in 2008, 2012’s candidates will be armed with the technologies to send tailored messages into any household. They will have the potential to modify and geo-target messages more quickly and pin-point them more exactlyeven on TV. Spot Runner’s Geo-Voter Targeting technology determines the most cost-effective and efficient way to reach key voters. With this technology, candidates at any level of government will have the ability to pinpoint different neighborhoods with versioned messages speaking distinctly to that area’s needs and concerns. Additionally, local candidates will be able to deliver their messages more cost effectively on TV and regional and national candidates will be able to tailor their messages to more succinctly address unique communities’ needs.
Engagement
Campaigns will also be able to converse with and react to voters on a level not seen in previous election cycles, largely through interactive television and video technologies. People will be able to access, experience, respond to, and share a candidate’s video messages at any point throughout their day with the click of a button.
The availability of low-cost video devices, video websites with social networking features and even mobile devices with one-button upload capabilities will allow voters more engagement. Campaigns will have the capacity to act or react, respond, pinpoint and address the questions that specific voters care most about. A voter in a small Salt Lake City suburb will have the same access to a candidate addressing a packed hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a person standing in the room, via mobile messages, Twitter, Facebook and other response-driven technologies.
TiVo is currently experimenting with brand advertisers and click-to-buy or click-for-more technology. With similar technology, voters will click through videoson TV, on the Internet, and on mobile devicesto get the information they want, pose their own questions and share their views directly with candidates, friends and family on the issues that matter most to themand they’ll be able to do so instantaneously.
Of course, as video is integrated more seamlessly with other platforms, including mobile and outdoor, this will also improve targeting. After buying organic produce at the grocery store, ‘Joe the Consumer’ may see a video ad on the screen at the checkout counter about a candidate’s green policy, all before swiping a credit card; he may even be able to add a few dollars to his bill as a donation to the candidate.
Campaigns of the Future
Soon, tens of millions of ordinary citizens will be able to amplify, transform or reject a campaign agenda, allowing each one of us to join political movements on behalf of the candidates and causes that matter most to usor build our own movement. Technology will continue to empower voters to be something more than members of a passive audience.
Tomorrow’s campaigns will not only be ‘futuristic’ but historic in ways that we just began to imagine in 2008. This last year signaled the re-emergence of the democratic ideals and individual empowerment that seemed to be fading away. Four more years will give each of us more of a say and more ways to say it.
Nick Grouf is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of privately-held Spot Runner, Inc., a technology company that is developing the next generation of advertising services.
Robert Shrum, senior advisor in the Gore and Kerry campaigns, is a senior fellow at the Wagner School of Public Service at NYU and Spot Runner advisor.
the fools who throw a hundred billion at reelecting a black liberation marxist who wants to govern out of disrespect and contempt for America - deserve to loose their money
Let’s work to make sure they do
I don’t think so. A hell of a lot of the nitwits that donatated to and voted for the Nitwit in Chief are out of work and living with mommy and daddy now and their credit cards are all maxed out.
Obama will probably use this company’s platform for funraising, too:
Accept payments everywhere.
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Obama would get more support, more votes and higher approval numbers if he was to take every dollar he gets for any future campaign and literally gives it back to the people, it can be as little as $20 per person all across America.
Everybody regardless of political orientation, everyone over 6 years of age.
I guarantee anyone the psychological effect would be interesting.
But of course that is way too ludicrous of an idea, who has ever given money to his or her supporters?
Little fact here, when Sarah Palin was governor in Alaska she did pretty much something like this, all Alaskans that were eligible for the yearly PFD also received an extra I think was the right amount of about $1200, this was when Sarah was our governor.
the money came from oil profits and was for the back then higher than normal fuel costs.
Of course with Sarah gone the fuel costs have skyrocketed and now we are almost at $4 a gallon for diesel.
That is one heck of a lot of wealth he could be spreadin’ around among his homies. Where’s the social justice is wasting a billion dollars on electing a child?
What is this writer smoking ?
TARP money.
Given that precedent, neither major party candidate is expected to participate in the public financing system in 2012.
A little good news in the article. I hated the fact that politicians use our tax money to run for office while still getting a pay check for a job they are not doing. Thank God that it has gotten so expensive that taking public funds is discouraged.
The Saudis are Bush fans. Why on Earth would they give to a Democrat?
People said that about Clinton in 1994-5 as well. I would not use a crystal ball when coming to elections. I have been more surprised than not on winners.
Don’t forget the PACs. That should be banned too. Political Action Committee....it even sounds liberal. Ban them immediately at least as far as raising money.
The biggest part of FRAUD, IMHO, is the buying of politicians by special interests, INCLUDING Corporations, who absolutely get their funding and/or tax breaks in exchange for the contribuitons. The People are scammed, and their votes basically become worthless (unless you're on the Public dole, or are a government employee).
How this country differs from ANY communist country is not an issue anymore.
The TOTAL CONTROL of the State Run Media keeps the lowest of the gene-pool voting for the Socialists to keep the freebies coming, even down to those who are not even Citizens of the USA.
The real reason Obama bowed to the Saudi monarch.
One would think that Obama will be needing all the money he can get to keep his past buried through 2012.
It’s not impossible that those invested in growing socialism in the USA wouldn’t be beyond putting together a billion dollars.
Can the Democrats pull off telling kids and other mindless people that a vote for them is a vote for all free stuff with any believability?
It is a crime to accept foreign donations in our Presidential Campaigns. As Erick Holder will not uphold these laws, the people must by demanding full and immediate disclosure of all donations made to candidate or party. States can take the lead in this effort.
BULLSH!T!
LLS
If just one state (Texas maybe) passes a law that requires proof of eligibility before you can get on the ballot, he will not run.
your kidding us here ?
the marxist muslim bowed and kissed the ring finger of the Saudi prince !
Gas prices are spiking under this muslim !
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