Taylor Hicks for President
Even in a Web 2.0 world, it all comes down to who votes.
There is hardly a person around who doesn’t know the historic significance of the 2008 presidential race. And I’m not referring to either of the mainstream party candidates. Technology, particularly the Internet and Social Media, is playing a key role like never before. From fundraising, to candidate’s Facebook pages, to blogs, voters with an internet connection are having a conversation with the candidates.
Use of Web 2.0 has also helped revitalize the youth vote — college students energized like the country hasn’t seen since the late 1960s — which will be another important factor.
It is probably safe to say that the youth vote was a key factor in Barack Obama‘s securing the Democratic nomination. Obama, one of the youngest candidates to run for president, understands (and uses) the Internet and Social Networking tools. To paraphrase Joe Trippi, “he gets it.” His opponent, Republican John McCain is slow to embrace the way people communicate in 2008.
And that could be the deciding factor in this election. In the introduction to his book, The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House, Garrett Graff notes that the winner of the fifth season of American Idol, Taylor Hicks received more votes than any presidential candidate in any U.S. election.
Wow! And in Idol‘s subsequent two seasons, even more people have voted. Maybe David Cook should be on the short list for vice president. The Idol season seven winner received about 85.5 million votes of the 97.5 million votes cast!
The First Campaign also emphasizes the new power that ordinary voters have through their cell phones, online video postings, blogs and social networks. “Add in the power of grassroots small-donor fund-raising…and the 2008 election will be conducted on a playing field where the party establishment will have the least control of any election in American history,” Graff predicts. It may also turn out to be an election with the greatest turnout in voter history, if participation in the primaries is any indication. 
But even with all the people who donate online and offline, turn out for speeches and rallies, wear campaign buttons and debate the candidates and issues with their friends and families, what truly will determine who our next president is, is the people who actually go to the polls on election day (or vote by absentee ballot). Maybe, if we could vote for president with our cell phones — just text YES to O-B-A-M-A or YES to M-C-C-A-I-N, we’d see the kind of participation that electing the leader of the free world deserves.
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