On Dec. 12, RunObama.com and DraftObama.org delivered a 12,000
signature petition to Senator Barack Obama to encourage him to run
for the 2008 presidency.
I was only moderately impressed with such a show of support
before he even announced his candidacy ““ until my roommate
joined the Facebook group “Barack Obama for President in
2008,” whose reach had surpassed that of the other two online
organizations.
The group’s membership as of Sunday was 29,937, comprised
of students from across the nation.
“It expanded pretty quickly,” said third-year
Bowdoin College neuroscience student Meredith Segal, the founder of
the Facebook group. “It first started in July … and then in
the fall as his candidacy seemed to be a real possibility, and we
just saw rapid expansion.”
Since its creation, the group is no longer just on Facebook.
Through their online roots, an independent organization called
Students for Barack Obama was formed.
The group is registering today with the Federal Election
Commission and is considering the pros and cons of becoming
incorporated, said John La Rue, deputy director of communications
and a fourth-year political science student at Harvard
University.
All of this, of course, is happening before Obama has even
announced that he is indeed running for the presidency.
“The organization, based from the Facebook group, is
organizing students, working on getting chapters started at
colleges across the country,” Segal said.
The core team of members traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire,
recently to speak briefly to the senator about their group, she
said.
College students have less money, and certainly less experience,
to ensure that their voices are heard and their issues addressed.
But we have some distinct advantages in the world of politics.
We have mastered the tools of Internet communication. We
organize and classify ourselves through sites such as Facebook,
making it virtually effortless to find others with similar beliefs
and ideas ““ and it seems as though students are beginning to
capitalize on this advantage.
And finally, we have a lot of votes yet to be cast.
According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic
Learning and Engagement, voter turnout for those under age 25 was
at 47 percent in the last presidential election, up from 36 percent
in the 2000 presidential election.
The turnout is still the lowest percentage of any age group and
so provides a large number of “unclaimed” voters for
politicians to fight over.
For the 2006 elections, Rock the Vote created a link through
Facebook for youth to register to vote. Candidates also started
Facebook profiles in 2006, but the organizational reach of the
Obama group moves well beyond the site’s uses in past
elections.
Recently, a national leadership team for the group was formed,
and regional and state leaders were chosen to facilitate the
national movement to local levels, Segal said.
Rather than the typical student movement that starts grassroots
and gains momentum, this group is working in reverse.
While my search for similar groups yielded no results as
impressive as the framework built by the Obama supporters, I have
no doubt such groups will be created in the coming months.
Josh Franco, the student body president at UC Merced, is the
California Director for Students for Barack Obama.
“I’m really going to be heavily relying on Internet
communications, … e-mails and blogs, and Facebook,” he
said.
His plans for the California branch include appointing
sub-directors and providing them with online tools and talking
points.
“I want to make sure that we have a representative on each
of the higher education campuses … (and) also have a student in
each of the precincts of California,” he said.
Franco said he plans on having the students sponsor events on
campuses, but also interact with other community organizations,
such as the Chamber of
Commerce, in order to get involved.
Obama may surprise the public, and certainly the organization,
if he decides not to run. Furthermore, the organization may or may
not continue to function independently if his campaign does not
indeed take off.
But whatever the case may be, this group’s strong
beginning is certainly a model for a new sort of student political
movement.
If you’ve experienced Obama-rama, e-mail Mishory at
jmishory@media.ucla.edu.