Obama Made My Top Eight!
Presidential Candidates Get On Myspace, But Will it Work?
By Angel Luna

Lately, as I make my way through the login process to check my Myspace page, I seem to always stumble into the new Obama video or the latest news in Hilary Clinton. The new political battleground, it seems, has become the internet. From Youtube.com to Facebook.com to Myspace.com, political candidates are investing heavily in time and money into having a strong presence on “online communities.” Obama has become my friend, at least online, and I'm working on getting into Hilary's top eight.

During the last major election, celebrities like P. Diddy, made a campaign called “Vote or Die,” the purpose of his campaign to make young people vote. This intent made a good impact, but it was not enough to engage today's youth generation, because there were still a lot a people who felt disconnected. So despite celebrity endorsements, tons of t-shirts, and those cheesy TV spots, nothing changed.

But this upcoming election has an even more direct vehicle to communicate to young people than rappers – online communities.   These virtual communities are just not new ways to connect with a lot a people, but it has become almost essential way for different industries to connect with the average American. Myspace, the biggest network out there, is breaking new ground everywhere, from the entertainment industry to political organizations trying to make folks conscious about a cause they are fighting over. Presidential candidates are no an exception.

Candidates getting into web communities is a good first step, but in the end, it will not lead to votes, or real political engagement. Because even virtual relationships have standards. If these candidates are not the ones making their pages, and they are not, it just feels like another advertisement.

A lot of young people has always feel disconnected towards this particular group of old people called candidates, and I include myself in this group. They are well-spoken and polished, but seem like they are out this world, unapproachable and distant. Candidate's Myspace pages are an attempt to solve this problem, so young people can go to a candidate's page and look at their profile. But their pages are not like ours. It is really a bunch of pre-packaged information for the masses, thus bringing us back to the same problem of candidates being removed from our world.

None-the-less, candidate pages are definitely being visited. Hilary has 10,703 friends and Obama has 117,212, which are enormous cyber-circle of friends. But I think people are going to their pages not for the candidates, but to connect with the candidates “friends.” I can go to Obama's page and look at their top eight and see people like me, my age, and work nine to fives just like me. This makes me feel like we have some type of connection, not necessarily with the candidate, but with his friends. Because we are not stupid, and we know that is not Giuliani is not doing is own page, we know that they have a well-developed team doing the Myspace work.

If the candidates really want to turn on their internet credibility, they need to have pages like the rest of us. I would feel more connected if I saw a Hilary Clinton slide show from a weekend at the club, or if I heard on Obama's page the latest Kenya West song. And it would be dope to read on Giuliani's page his quote being “I am the king of New York.” Because in reality what we are looking in a web community is for real people, and we want to see their real personalities from them, not professional site builders.

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