The Obama Campaign’s Tech-Savvy Revolution
How the Democrats Facebooked their way to victory.
Since the Howard Dean 2004 presidential campaign, a debate has emerged among Republicans that takes the form of either “Is the Right behind online?” or “Why is the right behind online?” On the Thursday after Election Day, the chairmen of the Democratic and Republican National Committees discussed a range of issues, including technology, and those discussions told us quite a bit.
Dean, soon to be the ex-DNC chairman, said, “But the Internet is an extraordinary — what the Internet is, is a community. It’s a community of people who don’t happen to live in the same place.”
RNC Chairman Mike Duncan responded: “I want to compliment you on what you did to inspire us and challenge us. Your use of the Internet fund-raising in your presidential campaign, what you did there, the social networking that your team has done.”
This is a fundamentally different perspective of what the Internet is for — forming a social network or raising money. But these views don’t necessarily tell us much about technology.
The Democrat’s vision of community dominated in a quantitative sense. Using TwitVote as a proxy, that community broke 6-1 for Barack Obama, explained in part by Wired magazine’s Technology Scorecard. Clearly, technologists were for Obama and the Democrats.
However, this is not a complete analysis. Compare the technology story with the youth vote, which Obama won. The Republicans once again leveraged their youth activists more successfully. In an interview, the executive director of the Young Democrats of America celebrated their voter contacts as a measure of their activism. The spokeswoman for the College Republican National Committee responded in that interview that in two weekends, the CRNC had exceeded the YDA’s voter contacts in the entire general election. The YDA’s executive director was shocked into silence. Indeed, the CRNC claims credit for phone call volume totaling nearly one-quarter of all voter contact in some states. Did the left win the youth vote? Yes. Did the left win youth activism? Perhaps not.
Just as the left winning the students doesn’t translate into superior student activism, winning the technologists doesn’t translate into superior technology. Between students and technologists, the left has a much more technologically-savvy community and has clearly dominated high-tech activism. Where the right has translated technology into traditional low-tech forms like call sheets and targeted scripts, they have been as, or even more, successful.
Let’s consider some examples from fundraising, GOTV, and communications.
Fundraising
In the Republican primary, Mitt Romney’s campaign argued that they were achieving tremendous success at online fundraising. While strictly true, former RNC eCampaign Director Michael Turk demonstrated that they were using the Internet for fulfillment of offline pledges. They were melding traditional high-dollar fundraising techniques with a new, more efficient mechanism for clearing checks and credit cards.
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Soren Dayton works at New Media Strategies in the Public Affairs department. He blogs at several websites including RedState and TheNextRight.com
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24 Comments
1. G-Ma:I’m going to learn how to be a community organizer, like our president elect.
I did notice any and all talking heads for Obama on TV, would take over the
Nov 14, 2008 - 10:25 am 2. Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Who was better at smart mobbing for President:interview or talk over the other person. They were rude. They would only
talk the prepared message and not answer questions.
That’s why Megyn Kelly at Fox made news herself, She insisted Bill Burton
answer her question.
[...] is a detailed story today in Pajamas Media that reports on various aspects of technology used in the US Presidential election. Starting with [...]
Nov 14, 2008 - 12:04 pm 3. Mike T:It’s good to see credit given to the Ron Paul campaign for doing quite well in this regard. The lesson from the Paul campaign is that the only way you are going to be able to match the left in its use of technology is to attract the young, libertarian crowd that Paul won in droves during the primary. McCain’s defeat in this area was inevitable because of the way that he stood against so many of the ideals that this segment of the Republican Party stands for. Who would want to go work for a candidate who has that relationship with your ideas and principles?
Nov 14, 2008 - 12:08 pm 4. SeanLA:Also, and in some ways more importantly, in collecting contributions via credit card on the internet one has to make sure they turn off security check elements like address, billing zip code verification and the 3 digit security on the back of the card.
This makes it easier for people making donations with less boring detail to fill out, etc. and lets the person make a donation more efficiently with less bother.
Occasionally you’ll get people claiming an error on their statement but this can be easily credited back.
Nov 14, 2008 - 1:02 pm 5. locomotivebreath1901:There’s no doubt that electronic media & technology play an important role in this new millennium.
Internet sales are a $200+ billion industry. Cell phone have commercials. The ‘New Media’ is in the blogs & E-Zines. Radio & television are old standards.
Obama utilized all to great information, and fund raising advantage. Some say illegally. But was that really the difference?
The 18-25 demo, which is more tech savvy and plugged in, is always touted, but rarely votes.
Didn’t McCain have a web site? Yes. Didn’t McCain collect donation online? Yes. Didn’t McCain advertise on radio & TV? Yes. Didn’t McCain robo-call? Yes.
So, what was the difference? Besides Obama’s huge (some say illegal) stash of campaign dollars which purchased consistent, continuous & expensive mega watt advertising?
The difference was Obama’s opponent: a low watt, inconsistent, middle of the roader that wasn’t all that distinguishable from some of the contenders Obama vanquished in the primaries.
But even then, Obama needed every bit of that $600 million dollar war chest, and every up to the last campaign hour to finally, -finally-, close the deal on a maverick.
All that was needed to defeat the Obamanator was a strong, hard core, on-point conservative message – and a man or woman who believed in it.
Nov 14, 2008 - 3:59 pm 6. vivo:Although technology had something to do with the Obama winning, the real culprit of the Republican defeat was their misguided policies and irrational positions. They forgot what humans look like . . .
Nov 14, 2008 - 4:40 pm 7. The Secret Sauce | Blue Grass, Red State:[...] Pretty good analysis of communications, technology, and GOTV. If you liked this post, you’ll love these:Evaluation Of Present Day Conservatism [...]
Nov 14, 2008 - 8:40 pm 8. Outback Jon:How funny is it that on a page called “TwitVote”, most people voted for Obama…
Nov 15, 2008 - 7:30 am 9. tmoreland:you live by the sword, you die by it.
after the ignorami who voted him in witness a jimmy carter-era presidency of choking inflation, 10%+ unemployment, long lines and outrageous prices at the gas pumps, the internet savvy culture will use the web to slay the monster, too.
Nov 15, 2008 - 10:09 am 10. CALIFORNIAMARTY:Obama ran a great campaign. He would have lost if the media were not in the tank for him. His connections and associations with unrepentant terrorists, unrepentant racists, anti-Americans, bigots and his quid pro quos with corrupt slumlords and terrible record as a state senator were all suppressed by all but Fox New’s Sean Hannity and talk radio. Having a weak opponent was a great plus and taking both sides of every issue and getting away with it also helped. It was the perfect storm to elect the worst choice for America. With the House and Senate rules by Democrats Obama will be a virtual dictator. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and the power to tax includes the power to destroy and when combined with a Commander in Chief with hubris filled ambition the results could push America into a depression and a weak second rate power with enemies that cannot wait to take advantage of our new appeaser in chief.
Nov 15, 2008 - 3:46 pm 11. Assistant Village Idiot:Did these internet-savvy techniques create the Obama fashionability, or did the the Obama campaign just ride that wave effectively? The “community” activities of the campaign were low on thought content, big on breathlessness. Even in the Ron Paul campaign, the youth support was much more hype-driven than libertarians usually are.
As to the news stories driven by the internet left, getting over the hump into the newspapers and networks still seems to be the threshold – and thus bias still applies. Obama could ignore because there wasn’t sufficient critical mass of pressure, as there was for McCain. As the MSM loses audience, I don’t know how long that will hold, but it was still true for this election.
Nov 15, 2008 - 4:56 pm 12. Typewriter King:Anyone wanting to jump in with a new GOP or third-party caucus will find any democrat advantage isn’t built on any lasting foundations. All will find practically none of the software will be difficult to reverse engineer, as most is free-open source, anyway.
In the last year, I’ve been astonished to find out just how old many of the “tech-savvy” activists really are. There are a whole lot of retirees out there doing these things, not at all what the popular conception is. I’ve concluded a conservative candidate won’t have any trouble at all in gaining volunteer/community organizer support if they can pass the tests of skeptics.
As for conservative youths, I’m sorry, but they’re not going to turn out and go through the whole grind just to install a new boss. If you want Ronulons or “Rontards” in the trenches, they’ll want Mark Sanford at the top of the next GOP ticket. They won’t settle for some contrived pick.
Nov 15, 2008 - 6:36 pm 13. Ed:I have worked on GOP grass roots organizing since 1972 and your article is the first time I have gotten a complete picture of how the Democrats have been successful. One of the issues appears to be how do you teach old folks(like me how to use facebook.
Nov 15, 2008 - 9:29 pm 14. Tennwriter:Jerry Pournelle, if I’m remembering right, said that the Country Clubbers were disdainful of a ground operation. Instead, I gather they want to hire pros.
Well, from their perspective of all money and no principles, I suppose that makes sense.
I believe he also said that the GOP stiff-armed Ron Paul.
Now, I’m not a Paulian, but we need their help. We need to talk to them, and see if we can come to an arrangement. I doubt if Mark Sanford being on the top of the ticket is on the table since Sarah Palin is far and away the numero uno contender for that spot.
There are people that need to be purged from this party, but I don’t think Paulians are generally among them. RINOs are, and not just any RINOs, but the ones that refuse to accept that this is a conservative party with a libertarian winglet.
So it all comes back to the country clubbers….bad politics and bad execution all in one…a gift that keeps on giving for the Dems whom they seem to like more than us.
Nov 15, 2008 - 9:41 pm 15. Tennwriter:This is no doubt self-interested, but it would be immensely useful. Remember the ten thousand ‘Bush is bad’ books? What if before the election, a couple dozen new books by ordinary Americans supporting the R ideals were circulated, and put on websites, and interviewed on talk radio?
Or maybe a more steady drip of them all along?
Book writers are the heavy artillery. If there were some tech-savvy way to make them more ‘mobile’ and ‘lighter and faster’ and ‘with heavier punch’….like sites that enabled conservative authors to promote easier, and tools that helped conservative authors write quicker, and research tools that pulled up details for convincing arguements and editorial help, and so forth….it might be the military difference between a cannon pulled by horses and a tank.
Nov 15, 2008 - 9:46 pm 16. Despaxious:Being able to pilot a boat in fair weather and smooth seas does not indicate a good sailor. Any analysis of campaign strategies must take into account that Dem’s always campaign in favorable media conditions while Republicans are always trying to make their way into a gale force headwind. This is not an outright dismissal of things the Dem’s may have done well, but a caution in assessing how effective a particular strategy or technique really is.
Nov 15, 2008 - 11:17 pm 17. Keith_Indy:For example a large part of Obama’s fundraising comes from small donation over the internet. However, considering Obama opened the door to campaign fraud by being the only candidate (Rep or Dem) to: a) Turn off all anti-fraud online checks (which rejects false names and international contributions); and b) Refuse FEC scrutiny of these small donations. Isn’t it interesting that half of his fundraising comes from these sources? Had a Republican done this the media would have descended on this story like a ton of bricks and quickly pressured the campaign to open up the books to the FEC. Instead they kept a lid on it and allowed Obama to take fraudulent donations (a number of bloggers donated fraudulently to prove the point).
In the end, can Republicans learn something from the Dem’s about online fund raising? Not likely, unless they want to break the law. And if they did we can be darn sure the media will expose them.
In the end, can Republicans learn something from the Dem’s about online fund raising? Not likely, unless they want to break the law.
Did they break the law? If the law isn’t strong enough, then the law and enforcement needs to be stronger. I’d put this at the top of the list of things Republicans need to make happen with campaign financing.
You know, I don’t think the problem was “not being conservative enough,” it was Republican politicians not being republican enough.
Nov 16, 2008 - 7:09 am 18. Maggie:GOP.com is boring. republicanforareason.com doesn’t work – I’ve signed up several times and never got a confirmation. Pathetic.
Nov 16, 2008 - 7:14 am 19. Bandit:what the Internet is, is a community. It’s a community of people who don’t happen to live in the same place.”
It’s a community of people you don’t know, have enver and will never see and who may not actually exist. So much for reality based.
Nov 17, 2008 - 7:24 am 20. jtron:AS we shrink into irrelevance, how about we consider why we are out gunned by the musicians, artists, educators, etc. of our time. Is it perhaps that our ideas are outdated and we fail to see the world at large in its current climate. Is culture, education, and science that scary? Not to those involved.
Nov 19, 2008 - 4:34 am 21. BlueRidgeForum » Obama Calling Up Grass Roots for Duties Now:[...] Dayton of The Next Right explains why here on Pajamas Media” – “Obama’s secret [...]
Nov 21, 2008 - 9:54 am 22. No Straw Men : links for 2008-11-23:[...] The Obama Campaign’s Tech-Savvy Revolution – Soren Dayton, Pajamas Media Let’s consider examples from fundraising, GOTV, and communications. (tags: Barack_Obama_2008) [...]
Nov 23, 2008 - 10:03 pm 23. ChooseTheHero.com » Blog Archive » "The Left owns the Internet":[...] our brother and sister GOP/conservative sites will be key participants in this effort. Soren Dayton illustrates how we can do this: You can make the fundraisers a little more efficient. You can make the GOTV [...]
Nov 30, 2008 - 3:00 pm 24. Brain-Jockey » Blog Archive » Obama’s Friend-Raising Trumps Fundraising:[...] Soren Dayton wrote, there are ways in which the Republican campaign organization exceeded Obama’s [...]
Dec 1, 2008 - 7:42 pm