Neither candidate did enough to reach out to the Internet generation during this electoral campaign. Romney didn’t do so because he doesn’t have much to offer to people who spend their lives in the social networks and who tend to be more cosmopolitan, well-traveled, well-informed, and progressive than any other segment of the population. Obama took a while to figure out how much he needed the Internet generation. Still, the bulk of his campaign money was spent on television ads. This is a dangerous strategy because there is an entire new generation of voters who don’t watch television.
Yesterday I got the following message from the Obama campaign that shows some belated awareness of the voters who can only be reached online:
Clarissa —
This is cool:
You can see exactly how many people named Clarissa have already voted.
Take a look at that. Then share it with your friends so they can see how many people with their names have voted, too — and look up their polling place.
Bottom line: We need every Clarissa– and everyone else, too — to make it out to the polls to support President Obama.
So help get the word out — and the vote:
This is a fun gimmick but a lot more needs to be done to reach the Internet generation. Several of my students don’t know that an election is about to take place. Not a single discussion or ad has reached them in their world where TV-sets and stationary phones are a thing of the past. This will have to change and soon.
Are you ready to vote tomorrow?
Clarissa's Blog 
I am VERY ready to vote. Obama has his problems but I am frightened of Romney/Ryan. And I think Obama will win decisively. Despite the various media declarations that this is a dead heat, polling data seems to indicate that R and R don’t have a realistic chance
Re: your point about the “internet generation.” I agree that candidates need to become more savvy about internet users. But still: I noticed several presidential ads on youtube that played every time I tried to click a video. So that’s where I think much of their “internet” money went. We will see if those ads were effective. Overall, I do agree that the days of spending lots of money on TV ads are at an end.
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I don’t think than any of the two parties will have more than 300 electoral college votes.
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I changed my mind: Romney will win tomorrow. But this is too close to call, especially in Ohio.
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Well I am admittedly biased I don’t think it’s my ideology speaking when I predict an Obama win. Almost all statisticians and pollsters are all predicting an Obama win. I won’t crowd Clarissa’s blog by posting a bunch of links but below are a couple of interesting websites from people who are “crunching the numbers.”
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ (This is the most famous one of course.)
http://www.electionprojection.com/index.php (This website is interesting because it’s by a Romney supporter who is nonetheless predicting an Obama win.)
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But many liberals that are upset with Obama will not vote tomorrow. I hope I’m wrong…
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If they think they will be better off with Romney, they are a weird kind of Liberals.
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I predicted Obama would win a long time ago. But that doesn’t prevent me from being very nervous. I will not relax until I hear Romney give his concession speech.
This is very stressful. And it isn’t personal gain that motivates me to support Obama. Romney’s tax plan will benefit me directly because I don’t need a mortgage, child or charitable donation tax credit. I can also pop over to Canada for any reproductive needs at any time. But another Republican presidency will hit the entire world with dire consequences just like the previous one did. The world economy can’t take another Bush-like president of the US.
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I already voted. I’m from Montana, so my vote for Obama isn’t worth dirt because of the structure of the electoral college, but I’m proud to say that I voted for Jon Tester for senator, and his seat is key to ensuring that the Democrats have power in the Senate. Tester’s a pro-choice, pro-education, pro-environment politician who needs the votes of students, Native Americans, farmers, and veterans in order to win this one, and I hope he gets it, considering how much he’s done for each group in Montana.
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Also: RE- reaching the Internet Generation, I don’t know if it’s officially affiliated with the campaign, but Nerds for Obama was a pretty fun idea/website that did plenty of terrific advertising for Obama.
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Of course, I’m only learning about it one day before the elections. 🙂
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The tool you linked to find out other names that already voted only works through Facebook, too. If, like me, you no longer are on Facebook because you think it’s a waste of time, then you can’t use the tool. Then again, I guess I’m not the target audience of that ad then.
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I don’t have Facebook either, so I couldn’t use it. This wasn’t done as well as it could have been.
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“If they think they will be better off with Romney, they are a weird kind of Liberals.”
They don’t think so, but many of them will not vote tomorrow.
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I’m a bit worried about voter enthusiasm from the left. But I don’t think it will be a big issue. Romney and Ryan are so very extreme. I am a bit worried about people who work on Tuesday and were unable to vote early however.
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I voted two weeks ago! 🙂 I was disappointed the mail room didn’t have stickers, though.
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