People Named Delan(e)y Are Geniuses

It's true.

This week we read Colin Delany's Using the Internet to Win in 2010 and 

Learning From Obama: Lessons for Online Communicators in 2009 & Beyond.  The two readings served as a good overview of the principles we've been discussing in class these past weeks.  Delany stressed the important of online outreach in political campaigning, specifically, and what lessons are to be learned from the 2008 Obama Campaign.  He discussed the importance of defining a specific strategy, tools being nothing without the solid or valuable content (a story) behind them, and of using online tools to reach influencers with lists and networks of their own.  He also pointed out that I have become a Twitter failure. "Don't start a feed only to let it die of neglect."  Oops.

I found these readings to be informative, but I have to say that I disagree to an extent with Delany's claims that "without the Internet, Obama would still be a junior senator from Illinois."  Did the Internet do wonders for Obama's fundraising efforts?  Yes.  Is it likely that, without his ability to coordinate volunteers and donors via the Internet, Hillary would have won the Democratic nomination?  Maybe.  But can we say that, without the Internet, Obama would not be President?  I don't think so.  On a good day, I would be willing to engage in a debate about the extent to which the Internet allowed/helped Obama (to) defeat Hillary.  But I can't say that the Internet is the reason Obama defeated McCain.  What we can say is that the Internet helped to build excitement around Obama, and that certain attributes of him as a candidate were more marketable to online audiences than were his opponents'.  But let's not forget that he won the presidency (and the primary) because of a range of issues specific to his 2008 nomination.  Obama didn't win BECAUSE of the Internet.  He won because he was new face, because he mobilized young voters and black voters, and because, as is traditional of elections following hard times, Americans wanted the incumbent party out.  Obama's Internet strategy took these opportunities and used online mediums to magnify and exploit them.  After all, Delany himself makes the point that online tools are nothing without content.  There are certain elements of Obama's candidacy that allowed him to be branded as a winning candidate.  McCain simply didn't have those elements in 2008.