Listen up, folks. The Right must learn digital or die. Check out David Carr’s piece in the Sunday New York Times on how Barack Obama recognized the value of the Internet’s social networking sites to his presidential campaign. Interesting comparison between Obama and Bush approaches in this regard:
“As a result, when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern. His e-mail message to supporters on Tuesday night included the line, ‘We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.’ The incoming administration is already open for business on the Web at Change.gov, a digital gateway for the transition.
“The Bush campaign arrived at the White House with a conviction that it would continue a conservative revolution with the help of Karl Rove’s voter lists, phone banks and direct mail. But those tools were crude and expensive compared with what the Obama camp is bringing to the Oval Office.”
Read the rest of this important story here. And note the not-so-subtle threat from the Times’ reporter about what will happen to Obama if he deviates from what are perceived as his promises to pursue a left-wing agenda on major issues like health care and redistributing wealth from “the rich” to “the poor.”
And then go back and read this post on Tapscott’s Copy Desk to understand what is really ahead for Barack Obama and the Left on the Internet.
UPDATE: Washington Post Follows NYT
Somebody at the Post yesterday read the Carr piece in the Times and said “we gotta get up on that story, too.” So this morning in the Post, Matthew Mosk and Shailagh Murray take a shot at explaining how Obama will use that massive database of emails for his campaign supporters, volunteers and donors in going over the heads of the mainstream media.
But since the mainstream media almost certainly will be a reliable transmission belt for Obama messaging for at least the first year of his administration, odds are good Joe Trippi and the other members of the Obama communications brain trust have something else in mind here.
