In the year 2008, the American people were looking for hope. Facing dire economic straits, a war with no end in sight, and non-stop political scandals, people of all party affiliations wanted to believe that things were going to get better. For better or worse, one man was able to effectively deliver that message: Barack Obama. The Barack Obama campaign not only successfully inspired a nation of people, but revolutionized election campaigning for good. Its use of internet networking, grassroots campaign, and mobilization of the youth vote lead it to be categorized as one of the most successful presidential campaigns of all time.
Initially, the Barack Obama campaign was tremendously successful because of its heavy use of internet networking. While the world wide web was certainly nothing new, no candidate had ever been able to effectively use it as a means to motivate voters. The Barack Obama campaign changed all of that. His staff developed a homepage that allowed supporters to develop their own home site. From their page, they could provide donations to the campaign and track its impact, look up rallies or meetings for supporters, or even start mini-networks of motivated voters who could set up their own fundraisers. The mobilization of voters via internet networking established a strong, vocal, and active base of supporters who were regarded as the lynchpin of Obama's success.
The second component of the Barack Obama campaign that was so successful was the reliance on grassroots campaigning. The idea of a grassroots campaign was heartily received during the 2000 Presidential primaries when Democratic contender Howard Dean showed promise early on by relying on voters instead of party mechanics to garner support. Eventually, Dean dug his own grave with a poorly executed victory speech, but the idea of grassroots campaigning did not go away. The Barack Obama seized upon this concept, and spent little time courting major Democratic power players. While Obama's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, attempted to win over the big wigs on Capitol Hill, Obama built an army of supporters in the common people by having zero apprehension about directly answering their questions in a straight forward manner. The support of the people eventually led the Democratic leadership to throw their weight behind Obama anyway, proving the effectiveness of grassroots reliance.
The final aspect of the Barack Obama campaign that made it so successful was the mobilization of the youth vote. For decades, political analysts and strategists had lamented the apparent apathy of youth voters. Their argument was that any politician who could harness that voting power would ultimately be successful. However, these same analysts and strategists wrote the cause off as hopeless, citing the failure of multiple past candidates who had tried to do so. The Barack Obama campaign changed all of that. While Obama's strategy did not ignore the soccer moms, Nascar dads, and senior citizen voters of the country, he spent a great deal of his time campaigning to college aged voters. His emphasis on hope appealed to the idealistic age group, and they showed up in droves on election day. In harnessing the youth vote, the Barack Obama campaign made major waves, and set an example for politicians to come.
