Bush breached traditional divides of generation, geography
and party, fostering a longing for someone who seemed
above the partisan fray. Obama
spoke not as a conventional
politician, but as a moral figure holding out the promise
of a better country, a more
inclusive society, and a more
productive discourse. He made
voting for him seem like participating in a cultural awakening.
Much has been made of
Obama’s adroit use of social
media. This channel proved
especially useful in connecting
with younger voters, who are
less likely to have fixed mailing
addresses and landline phones,
and who tend to be turned off
by television advertising. But
the real brilliance of Obama’s
social media strategy was how
it imbued the messaging with
authenticity. In using Facebook, MySpace and other such
channels to reach voters, the
campaign turned ordinary
people into the messengers.
In place of top-down missives
from a centralized campaign,
college friends heard about
Obama from their friends (or
at least their “friends.”) This
fit perfectly with the campaign’s emphasis on welcoming volunteers not as additions
to a conventional apparatus,
but as entrants to a grassroots
movement.
“Obama did the best job of
recognizing the untapped potential of the millennial generation, and reaching out to our
generation in ways that were
very effective,” says Alex Orlowski, who was an undergraduate at University o