Money, Money, Money!

Like John F. Kennedy in his election, Barack Obama used new literacies in a way that gave him a drastic advantage over his opponent, John McCain. By the time his candidacy was announced, he had already set up a complete website, fully accessible by the public. As previously addressed, it included links to donate money as a place to discuss and organize campaigning meetings (Shifferes, 1). Through his websites, hehad a group of people already committed to volunteering and campaigning for Obama before the election even began. These people, connected through his website, aided him in setting up some important ground-work in the key swing and caucus states (Shifferes, 1). This was especially helpful in defeating Hilary Clinton’s campaign to become the 2008 Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee because people who were voting democratically were already committed to Obama through his volunteers. By using his volunteers early on and taking small sums of money in donations, Obama’s funding was overflowing, and he was able to knock Clinton out of the running completely. Unlike Obama, Clinton used big time television advertising to gain large sums of money from fewer donators. This eventually caused her to pay out of pocket for her campaign, and she was forced to resign (Shifferes, 1). Unlike Clinton, Obama chose to focus on large and small donors with almost complete equality. Through his use of new literacies such as his website and blogs, he was able to gain most of his funding from online donation sites. After being named the Democratic nominee, Obama refused the help of any public financing, making his decline into a part of his argument and campaign. He stated that taking money from the taxpayers was not the best way to campaign, making him even more popular with the people(OpenSecrets.org, 1). Because he declined the help of public financing, he had no limitations or regulations attached to his funding. This allowed him to pour his money into the campaigning that he thought was the best and most effective. Obama also made the point to let the public know that they were completely funding his campaign through their small donations—in fact, over 91% of the contributions Obama had gotten in late June of 2008 had been under one hundred dollars (Mooney, 1). Obama’s choice of funding combined with his use of new literacies drastically affected the campaign.

Question to think about: What did you think when you heard that Obama turned down the help of public financing that many candidates eagerly accept? Were you impressed or disappointed and why?