In the new political spectrum, the Internet plays a key roll. In 2004, Howard Dean revolutionized the impact of the Internet with his presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy on her web site. Ron Paul actually received some votes thanks to his web presence.
However, this year’s Internet darling is Senator Barack Obama.
Obama pulled in $4 million from Internet donation this weekend. He dominates the MySpace “friends” categories, and has over 200,000 more supporters than Hillary on Facebook. He now has his own YouTube-style site dedicated to videos supporting his candidacy – YouBama. The site’s top videos include George Clooney, a five year old girl, Charles Barkely, and a 20-something named Chris.
There is still a long way to go in the 2008 campaign, but if Internet support is a measure of popularity and votes, Obama has a healthy lead.
Then again, so did Howard Dean.
It’s a cheeseburger in a can.