This morning, The Washington Post uses last week's Obama appearance in Duncanville to, once more, investigate the "movement" surrounding the senator from Illinois. Among those interviewed is a former Bill Clinton war roommate, Simon Rosenberg, who details the two campaigns' different use of New Media when it comes to campaigning:
For proof of Obama's online presence, Rosenberg wrote on his blog Sunday, one need look no further than The Dallas Morning News' home page, featuring that enormous drop-down Obama banner ad -- or, as Rosenberg referred to it over the weekend, "a whole new kind of 21st century political ad." Though, much like every other ad on The News' site, it's also a whole new kind of annoying. --Robert WilonskySimon Rosenberg, a veteran of the Clinton war room and founder of the New Democrat Network, says the Clinton campaign found itself stuck in the 20th-century model of campaigning: the 30-second TV spot, a tarmac stop and 200 kids in the headquarters. What Obama has been better at, Rosenberg explains, is understanding an emerging 21st-century model: Every day, because of the Internet, supporters work for their candidates, contacting their friends on various sites, sending e-mails, watching and creating videos and forwarding them online. It is movement politics in which a messenger (Obama) clicks with a medium (the Internet), Rosenberg says.
"The Clinton campaign missed the zeitgeist of the moment," Rosenberg says, "and they underestimated the possible reach of Obama's support, and they're paying for it."
