What Happened In 2008?
As I was searching though McCain and Obama’s web-sites there wasn’t really that much information anymore. In McCain’s was a thanks for your support message and in Obama’s not much at all. Since the elections have ended so have the sites as well.
From our readings this week it focused a lot on candidates and their vulnerability of incumbents. Incumbents tend to be not so safe after all when it comes to elections. 2008 was Bush’s last year in office so there was no possibility of him returning to office. Many people wanted change because of the current situation with the economy among a lot of other issues. There seemed to be no chance that the Republicans would win in 2008. Democrats also had a leg up on the Republicans seeing that they run Congress.
As for party centeredness and campaigns the goal is to win elections. Each candidate can be associated with a political party, but when it comes to campaigning the idea is to win and party affiliation seems to take a seat on the back burner. I’m not saying affiliation is ignored, but what comes out of the candidate is how far left or right they are in their ideals.
As far as technology goes, this to me benefits the candidate and not so much the party. With these advances, such as YouTube, Facebook, and blogging, the campaigns in my opinion become candidate-centered. With these advances candidates are able to make it all about themselves. Also with new technology a trillion news stations and on-line sites are able to pick and choose who they wish to support as well as bash.
In conclusion, it’s hard to say if technology is useful in campaigns. I feel that if it is targeted at the right groups then it can be. It’s clear however that candidate’ campaigns are centered around just that- CANDIDATES, and parties take the back seat during elections.