We still have 2 1/2 months until the US presidential election's outcome will be decided, and it is yet to be decided. However, one lasting change is going to resonate from this year's political season.
Traditionally, conservative Republicans and "establishment" candidates have dominated in the political fundraising wars, generating millions in donations from wealthy contributors and corporations through lavish fundraisers and photo opportunities. Of course, those aspects of fundraising continue to exist in today's political season, but the winner of the fundraising battles may surprise... as well as where a lot of his support is coming from.
Barack Obama is neither an establishment candidate nor is he a conservative Republican. His platforms are highly progressive and he definitely aligns ideologically with the Democratic party. However, he IS the runaway winner in political donations this year, far ahead of rival Republican John McCain and fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton (who would be considered as a Democrat to be the establishment candidate). While donations have come from traditional sources for Senator Obama, a significant portion of his support is coming in chunks of $50 by online donations through the BarakObama.com website... a cumulative total of donations that netted him over $50 million in June 2008 alone. This is not an altogether new phenomenon, however, but Howard Dean was unable to finish after a poor showing in Iowa in 2004.
I imagine that in 2010 and 2012, we will see a greater emphasis on populist web support, donations, and blogging take hold in Presidential elections, especially if Barack Obama is elected in November. If you look at Mike Huckabee's website, you'll see some similar strategies as he continues to position his populist conservative platform to the party base and possibly positioning himself for another run in 2012 or 2016. He's deploying the same mechanisms to reach dissatisfied limited government /populist conservatives as Barack Obama is going after citizens longing for change in our political environment.
Additionally, it will be interesting to watch how the Web 2.0 enabled strategy plays out for Obama in the general election, as neither Bush nor Kerry leveraged these tools much 4 years ago.
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