I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice this. But this is clearly the first web-driven presidential election. Check out the Facebook profiles for: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and John Edwards. I couldn’t find profiles for Rudy Giuliani, Bill Richardson, or the other also-rans. Sure, they each have a website, but who in American w/ a pulse doesn’t?
Try it. Google “[name of candidate] facebook” and see what turns up. Then check MySpace, Friendster, tribe.net, or even Makeoutclub. Maybe they’re out there?
It’s funny to see who doesn’t get it. Hillary’s profile has a stupid cliché campaign “bio” that’s bored us for decades. At least Obama (the one that most looks like a “real” person) lists some of his favorite musicians (or, perhaps, who his advisors have suggested he should say are his favorite musicians).
Still, I wish we could “friend” these guys (you can instead “support” them, which isn’t the same thing), or see who their friends are. Do they “poke” each other? What kinds of Facebook groups do they belong to? I want to see slightly-inapropriate pictures of them at parties. Isn’t that what Facebook’s for?
So it’s still not quite a two-way “conversation” as we’re supposed to think. I mean, Hillary’s “conversation” is almost entirely one-way. If she were livecasting, responding to comments, or even doing a chat room forum, then it might be a “conversation” — otherwise, it’s just posting a speech on the interweb. Not the same thing. Not at all.
But now we can add some new data into our analysis of the candidates: Number of “wall posts” (short notes left by other Facebook users). So far:
Obama has 4,261
Hillary has 2,699
Edwards has 1,090
Romney has 999 (creepy)
McCain has only 139 (that's really sad; I know actual people w/ more wall posts than that)
So. Facebook users (mostly college kids who don’t vote anyhow) prefer Obama over Hillary by a comfortable margin (about 3:2). If that means anything.
I’d also like to see some data on the influence Comedy Central’s The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are having this electoral round. There’s already a well-supported hypothesis about “the Colbert bump” (every incumbent who appeared on The Colbert Report was reelected). But case in point: Bill Richardson appeared last night on The Daily Show; today he sits comfortable in the weekly Pajamas Media poll in first place (among Democrats) w/ an incredible 49% (out of 1,701 votes).
BTW, there’s an interesting article (“Be Afraid of President McCain”) in the April issue of Reason that might put a chill down your spine. And The New Republic has an excellent article on “Clinton the hawk” (April 2) and one on Obama’s “unlikely political education” (March 19). They’re all worth reading.
