For even the most casual of R*M blog reader you’ll know that we have more than a passing interest in how Barack Obama used social media to help him get elected. Dan’s blogged on it, as has Jeremy and Leo even gave a presentation about it. But what about McCain? Y’see all too quickly we forget that McCain too used the internet to good effect during his campaign. Well, so his daughter tells me.
Turns out that the McCain campaign raised over $100 million online in 2008. Moreover the Internet accounted for one third of all dollars raised in the primary and one quarter of everything for the general by Republicans. For this reason Becki Donatelli argues that McCain’s loss had “little, if anything, to do with our ‘lack of understanding the Internet’”. So there.
I could go through and tell you what else Meghan McCain has written about Republicans and the web but I think it’d be more fun if you read it first hand. And I can assure you that my reason for cutting short this post has little to to with this.
Poor Meghan (is the ‘h’ an affection, do you suppose?) she still doesn’t get it.
Any geriatric right-wing pander merchant can raise money online. It’s using online social networking to organise volunteers and boost GOTV operations that’s the trick – one which her dear Papa’s campaign so singularly failed to perform.