WurfWhile

There’s already been coverage of Barack Obama’s success at Facebook, a social networking site. Give credit to the “official” Obama Campaign for getting the principle, social networking, and not fixating on the vehicle (Facebook, Myspace, etc.). From today’s Obama Campaign fundraising appeal:

“Dear Friend,

The special-interest industry in Washington has only grown since the last election, and it will spend more money than ever this time to try to own our political process and dictate our policies in Washington.

We’re not going to play that game. We’re not taking any contributions from Washington lobbyists or political action committees.

We’re going to transform the political process by bringing together hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans to build a campaign responsible to no one but the people — people like you.

So here’s something different. Right now someone is waiting to match your first online donation to our campaign, doubling your impact.

If you make your first online donation now, you’ll be able to read a note from the person who matched your amount, and you’ll be able to write to them about why you gave.

Thousands of people who’ve already donated to the campaign have committed to give again — but only if someone like you decides to make their first online donation.

Will your make your donation now?

http://action.barackobama.com/match

We need to dramatically multiply the number of people who own a piece of this historic campaign, because the only way we can win is by making this campaign belong to as many people as possible.

It may sound strange for a presidential candidate to launch a fundraising drive that isn’t about dollars.

But this campaign isn’t just about money. And our democracy shouldn’t be either.

It should be about people.”

Very smart. The Obama campaign was never going to be a continuation of the “people-powered Howard” Dean Campaign. Barack Obama is better known nationally at this early stage than Dean was in the 2004 race. Obama is already a prominent national fundraiser - unlike Dean during the last race. The type of appeal to mobilize the numbers (of people and dollars) had to change with the candidate and the times. The biggest challenge that major contenders Obama and John Edwards face is campaign control with their attempt to harness the “people-power” of the Dean Campaign (I don’t count Hillary Clinton as vying for this type of support). The question to campaigns in such cases is ‘what power are you willing to give up?’ Already John Edwards has received criticism for not coming across as authentic - his mistake was not that he had already decided to run, but that he pretended it depended on his supporters. Likewise, the ban against bringing signs to Barack Obama’s announcement, while totally understandable from a campaign control perspective, was antithetical to a ‘man of the people’ candidacy (and having staffers make up handwritten signs wasn’t a good second best). Here, it seems, is the genuine article.

I think the Obama campaign’s message here is spot-on. It’s about networking your supporters. It’s about buy-in. It’s about sharing your ideals and ideas with someone.

We’ll see if this Obama effort generates money. Whether the fundraising matching campaign generates big dollars short-term or not, it generates the right message to supporters. The message is that they matter to the campaign - that they are the campaign. Making people the campaign will be a tougher to maintain this time around - everyday people are not always well scripted, and the Obama and Edwards campaigns start at the top of the pack.