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Obama, the First Real Tech President, May Give Have to Give Up E-Mail

by Terrence O'Brien on November 17, 2008 at 12:39 PM

Barack Obama - The Tech President
I'm sure we don't have to tell you that Barack Obama has changed how the Web is leveraged in politics. Sure, Gore and Bush dabbled, and Dean and his campaign manager Joe Trippi showed you could build a base and raise enormous amounts of money, but it took the Obama campaign to prove that you could practically replace the traditional party machine with social-networking.

Perhaps we're being a bit glib, but the general point is undeniable. President-Elect Obama used the Internet in a way never seen before. He built a base, organized probably the largest grassroots movement this nation has ever seen, raised more money than anyone thought possible, and actually made supporters feel as if they were engaging in an exchange of ideas with the candidate and his campaign.

The New York Times' David Carr is in agreement. The Political Machine pointed us to a quote from his article:
"...while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns."
Carr sees not only the end of traditional political methods, but perhaps of traditional party politics.

As we've covered in great detail before, Obama has made extensive use of social networking services and ideas to build his enormous support base, and it appears he has no intention of abandoning those tools anytime soon. Just visit Change.gov, where the Obama transition team posts blogs, gives the public the opportunity to apply for positions within the administration, and even lets average Americans peruse the Transition Directory, a document intended for the incoming president and his administration. Our new President-Elect also intends to supplement the traditional weekly White House radio address by posting it as a video on YouTube.

There is one small stumbling block though. Even though Obama will be the first president to put a computer in the Oval Office, he might not have a whole lot to do on the PC since he may be forced to give up e-mail for the duration of his administration. Quite painful for a man who has admitted to being BlackBerry addict.

Let the age of the transparent tech-enabled presidency begin! [From: The Political Machine]

Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, elections, internet, obama, politics, social networking, SocialNetworking, web

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