Preparing for the Obama Era - washingtonpost.com

Preparing for the Obama Era - washingtonpost.com: "By Robert Barnes, Dan Eggen and Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post Staff Writers | Sunday, November 9, 2008; Page A01

Faced with one of the most important transfers of presidential power in American history:

1. amid wars on two fronts,
   
2. the looming threat of terrorism at home and
   
3. a full-blown economic crisis
   

he outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama team have responded with exceptional cooperation on those issues, aides and outside experts say."

Barack Obama, will you tap the groundswell?

I started to watch at 6 a.m. Finnish time when the result was more or less clear. Within two hours John McCain congratulated the new president-elect, Mr. Obama Barack. Olli satyed up all night and watched the evolution through Internet.

Barack Obama, will you tap the groundswell?: "Like many of you, I watched the election last night, and watched Barack Obama's acceptance speech. This speech capped off an election in which Obama demonstrated inspirational leadership and the power to organize and take advantage of a true groundswell. Groundswell means, literally, a rise in the ocean. Figuratively, it typically refers to a political movement in which people come together around a common cause. Could there be any better example than this?

Through my.barackobama.com, through Facebook and MySpace and YouTube, and through clever outreach to his supporters, Obama's campaign has truly energized its fans and turned the power of their passion to spreading his messages and gaining the votes he needed. In this country balanced on the knife edge on so many issues, I think it is no exaggeration to say that Barack Obama owes his victory to the effectiveness of his campaign's groundswell Internet strategy.

What now?

Barack Obama faces perhaps the most complex set of problems to face a president in the last fifty years, from terrorism to a teetering economy to a deficit that scares the crap of out me for my children's future. He has the power to inspire people behind the solutions he may come up with. He's clearly intelligent. But does he have the humility to gather those solutions from the popular groundswell that elected him?"

Welcome to GFN - So What’s Your Point? » Massive Crowds Greet Obama In St. Louis

Barack Obama's organization has used Social Media, Internet, Web 2.0, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Email etc. to build voter relationships with millions of followers. We still don't know who is going to win, but Obama has clearly shown that Internet is a powerful tool in the hands of talented organizers. His television Ad spending is also much higher than John McCain's.

Welcome to GFN - So What’s Your Point? » Massive Crowds Greet Obama In St. Louis: "The Obama campaign raised $150 million in September. Considering our tough economic times, that grand sum makes me bite my lip.

Yes, I know it’s important we get Obama in the White House — our lives and the fate of the world depend on it — but I can’t help but muse how much good that pile o money could do if put toward medical research et al. But so it goes.

When Obama hit St. Louis over the weekend, they estimated 100,000 people showed up to stand under the Gateway Arch to hear, they hoped, the next president of the United States. It was the largest domestic crowd Obama has assembled during his campaign, reports The Chicago Tribune. So dense and far-reaching is the crowd … when I first looked at the picture my skeptical eye immediately assumed it was photoshopped. It wasn’t.

“All I can say is, wow,” Obama said as he took the stage and looked out over the sea of humanity."

Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily

I'm curious about the presidential election in USA. It's a game between the "old and experienced" and the "new man promising change". Who is going to win? The first debate ended with Obama winning a few points if I've been reading the reports right. Monday will tell what happens to the toxic loans. Will there be "garbage bank" handling the sub-prime problems? If not, what will happen in the global economy on a short term basis? How close to a meltdown is the economical system?

Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily: "Debate Rundown. When John McCain suddenly suspended his campaign this week and flew to Washington to broker a deal to keep Wall St. afloat, he said he would not debate Barack Obama unless there was a bill to solve the credit crisis. There is still no bill but McCain ate his words, flew to Mississippi, and debated Barack Obama at the University of Mississippi anyway last night. Probably every newspaper in the country has a story on it. The Washington Post has particularly good page on it, with the full debate video, the full transcript, and a video analysis by Chris Cillizza.

This debate was largely about foreign policy, McCain's strong suit. In that respect, the expectation was that McCain would do well since he has far more foreign policy experience than Obama. On the other hand, to 'win' the debate, all Obama had to do was show that he is McCain's equal. Since most of the country favors the Democrats on the economy, health care, and domestic policy generally, if Obama can create the mindset of 'on foreign affairs the two men are roughly equal and on domestic affairs Obama is better,' he wins.

Political Wire has collected comments from pundits of various stripes. On the whole, they feel that neither candidate made any major gaffe and neither one landed a knockout blow. McCain claimed that Obama was wrong about the..."

McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for V.P. - Yahoo! News

McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for V.P. - Yahoo! News: "DENVER - John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on Friday in a startling selection on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

Two senior campaign officials disclosed Mccain's decision a few hours before the Republican presidential nominee-to-be and his newly-minted running mate appeared at a rally in swing-state Ohio.

Palin is a self-styled hockey mom and political reformer who has been governor of her state less than two years.

Palin's selection shocked numerous Republican officials.

In making his pick, Mccain passed over several more prominent prospects who had figured in speculation for months — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge among them.

At 44, Palin is a generation younger that Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is Barack Obama's running mate on the Democratic ticket.

She is three years Obama's junior, as well — and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama's relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters.

Palin flew overnight to an airport in Ohio near Dayton, and even as she awaited her formal introduction, some aides said they had believed she was at home in Alaska."

Helge: That's an interesting choice. The campaign begins. What do you think about the outcome?

Obama and Clinton in Texas

"Morning, starting a new week. How to motive innovative companies to use Social Media, blogs, wikis, twitter to connect with clients/partners," was my first Twitter entry at 10 am.

I'm working with a challenging communication task, looking for Venture Capital for an innovative company.

I've studied the upcoming Clinton - Obama race in Texas and Ohio, and how they end up getting financing for their campaigns.

"Senator Barack Obama’s campaign, began diligently mounting the opposition. They set up in a donated former quickie-loan store, plugged in their computers and got the place cleaned up for a celebrity cameo by the actor Samuel L. Jackson, who was filming a movie in nearby Shreveport, La.," writes New York Times.

Helge: The story continues...

In dozens of interviews across Texas over the last two weeks with campaign workers, volunteers and voters, a similar picture has consistently emerged from place to place: a well-prepared Clinton campaign has relied on longtime friendships and deep connections to the state’s party operation here, especially in the highly organized, heavily Hispanic cities of South Texas. At the same time, the Obama campaign nearly always feels smaller — sometimes even makeshift, despite its considerable money advantage — but it also seems remarkably self-generating, drawing hundreds of the first-time campaign volunteers that have fueled his success elsewhere.

Helge: Grassroots, volunteers, self-organized.

While Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has also generated more first-time volunteers and many more small-money Internet donors in Texas than it has elsewhere, the difference in the grass-roots flavor of the campaigns can be seen almost everywhere. Type “Texans for Obama” into a search engine, for example, and one of the top results is a volunteer blog with hundreds of entries stretching back almost a year. Doing the same with “Texans for Hillary” or “Texans for Clinton” brings up texansforhillary.com, which has no content, and texas4hillary.com, a blog with entries going back only to Feb. 10. (There are smaller blogs that are either part of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign Web site or the Democratic National Committee’s Web site.)

Helge: The combination of TV and Internet, Social Media and Mobile communication.

Over the last two weeks, the feet-and-phone-call operations of the campaigns have been mounted alongside a heavy bombardment of television advertisements in which the Obama campaign spent about $10 million to the Clinton campaign’s $5 million. Commercials for both campaigns have focused mostly on working-class issues like jobs and health care. Mr. Obama has briefly tried out his Spanish, while a Clinton advertisement flatters Texans’ spirit of practicality as a means of sowing doubts about Mr. Obama.

Helge: Which way are the Hispanics going?