Waheed Shahzad

Professor Regan
English 111
17 November 2014

Transformation of Presidential campaigns due to the Social Media

In 2007, Hilary Rodham Clinton was the obvious choice for the Democratic nomination for
president. Yet, despite her advantages like name recognition, accomplishments, and fundraising
expertise, Barack Obama beat her in the battle for delegates and on January 20, 2009 became the
44th president of the United States. How did the first-term junior Senator from Illinois with a
short list of achievements beat Hilary Clinton and former Senator and Vice-Presidential
nominee, John Edwards, and then defeated the Republican nominee, Vietnam War veteran and
Senator, John McCain, to become the United States of Americas first African American
President?
Social media has completely altered presidential campaigns by providing a way to bypass
the filter of traditional media, allowing campaigns to directly and conveniently connect with
voters and empowering citizens to have an active role in the election. Barak Obama used this
new tool extremely successfully and there is no doubt if there was no social media available,
Barak Obama had no chance of becoming the first African American president of the United
States of America.

Obamas successful campaign was that his team used the technology of social media as a
central focus of its strategy that helped with fundraising while at the same time it empowered
volunteers who felt they could make a difference. In victory, Obamas presidential campaign has
revolutionized campaigns forever.
Social media has transformed the communications strategies of presidential campaigns
and gave a new direction for campaigning for presidential elections as a whole.
Without social media, it would have been nearly impossible for then-Senator Barack Obama to
challenge then-Senator Hillary Clinton, let alone defeat her for the Democratic nomination. Yet,
the team Obama assembled created their own social network that raised so much money they
opted out of public financing, reached more volunteers than previously possible, and cultivated
an online community of supporters who shared stories and experiences that reinforced their
beliefs, dedication, and energy.
So many policy makers and researchers started following what Obama did successfully
first during 2008 and then during 2012 presidential elections. The DDC vice president for client
relations, Joshua Baca, who has nearly 10 years of past Presidential and congressional campaign
and public affairs experience and a deep understanding of stakeholder engagement, press
relations and strategies, politics, and grassroots and digital media said in a personal interview by
Kenny Ames on Feburary 2014:
In 2008, the President ran a very sophisticated digital campaign for 2008. You think
about the leaps he made from 2008 to 2012 were enormous technologically, and using social
media particularly. The point Im getting at was that election opened the eyes of people to use
social media tools to communicate with voters, to micro target voters, to get the message out. I

would say the common thing I heard in 2009 from clients, and people who were running for
campaign offices, or whatever it was, it was like, I want what Obama did.
This topic is quite diverse and there are thousands of examples which can be quoted to
prove the power of social media and how enormous its impact was in the 2008 and 2012
presidential election, there are two particular examples which changed the whole political
campaign and turn the table towards Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential elections.

The 47%:
Social media played a critical role in spreading the video containing Mitt Romneys forty-seven
percent statement and his other reflections on the race. At a fundraiser on May 17, 2012, in Boca
Raton, Florida, Scott Prouty secretly recorded Romneys remarks to Republican supporters who
had donated $50,000 to his campaign. Clips of his statements to donors at this event went viral.
Romney shared his view that,
There are forty-seven percent who are with [President Barack Obama], who are
dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government
has the responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food,
to housing.
In an exclusive interview with Ed Schultz of MSNBC that aired on March 13, 2013, Scott
Prouty revealed his motivations for eventually posting clips of the video. He was offended by
Romneys lack of empathy for the workers as he described his tour of a Chinese factory that
employed work-camp living conditions while head of Bain.

You shouldnt have to pay $50K

to hear what the candidate thinks. He was also inspired by Bill Clinton, who he met at an event
he worked, as the former president came back to meet and thank the staff, in contrast to Romney

who arrived late, shouted orders at the help, spoke to and socialized only with invited guests, and
quickly left for the next event.
Once Prouty made the decision to release the video, he made it his mission to get the
video to go viral on his own by posting it online and sharing it on popular sites.
Obamas campaign and people opposed to Romney were able to compile these negative aspects
and present Romney in a negative light. It was possible for pro-Obama supporters to define
Romney as someone that cared only about the wealthy and splice clips together to support this
portrait. And while a few videos that were released by the Romney camp roamed the Internet,
the clips from the May fundraiser overwhelmed and destroyed their efforts to change the
narrative and voters perception. Adding fuel to the fire, Obamas campaign augmented the
impact by creating its own shareable content for social media to spread and compound Romneys
wounds, further highlighting Romneys teams troubles utilizing social media. Meanwhile,
Romneys Twitter account was silent on the issue.
His campaigns response was anemic at trying to clarify or spin this in his favor.
Romney himself rejected the comments at an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on
October 4, 2012, speaking with a conservative reporter known for criticizing President Obama.
He told Hannity that, Now and then youre going to say something that doesnt come out right
and In this case, I said something that was just completely wrong. He added
I absolutely believe, however, that my life has shown that I care about 100%. And
thats been demonstrated throughout my life. This whole campaign is about the 100%. When I
become president, it will be about helping the 100%.

But, the video clips were so damaging that they paralyzed Romneys camp. There is a
saying in politics that if you are explaining, youre losing; and it is difficult to image an effective
distraction from these comments aside from a blunder or failure from the other side.
The Hurricane Sandy
This second case looks at how the popularity of social media during and after Hurricane Sandy
affected the presidential campaign. Mitt Romneys chances of becoming president were
diminished because of how social media amplified his forty-seven percent issue.
In late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck into the Eastern United States, becoming the
second most deadly and costly t hurricane in United States history while earning the title of
largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter. It caused damage and destruction
that cost upwards of $50 billion and was responsible for dozens of deaths. But what made this
particular hurricane politically relevant was that it hit the United States one week from Election
Day 2012, forcing both campaigns to suspend their operations.
Natural disasters test leaders, so they present opportunities for elected officials. A poor
response can be harmful and on the other hand, a strong response can boost a leaders public
opinion. Hurricane Sandy presented both President Barack Obama and his Republican
challenger, Governor Mitt Romney, with the opportunity to display leadership. Obama had the
opportunity to prove his leadership skills by managing this disaster in a way that people can
relate to him, which he did and earned the respect of the voters. On the other hand Romney
couldnt make use of this opportunity because all he could do is to criticize Obama and his
administration for poor economic performance and present himself as a best man for the job, but

in such circumstances he could not talk about all that because people would think that he does
not care about the huge disaster that this country is facing.
And while on one hand country was battling through this storm, on the other hand
another storm was going through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. A virtual
community formed and people were sharing their experiences through social media, reporting
events through pictures and videos and while doing so they were able to remain connected.
So to what extent did social media hurt Romney during the hurricane? A hashtag on
Twitter titled #MittsStormTips became popular, sharing fake suggestions from Romney such as
Make sure all your binders of women are up high from flood waters and locked secure from
high winds, Folks if you do not have a vacation home to go to on higher ground borrow one
from your parents, Stack poor people in front of the chateau to keep out flood waters, and
more.
This negative tweets and user made videos added fuel to the fire for destroying Romneys
campaign and chances of becoming a president. While on the other hand Obama and his
administration took full advantage of social media and were able to communicate clear message
to the mass media.
It is certain that the rise of social media affected the ways in which presidential
campaigns and voters communicate. First, it changed the dynamics from a one-way stream of
messages from the campaign to the voter. Second, it removed the filter of traditional media.
Third, it allowed for greater ease and speed of communications that spread at a rate never before
seen. Fourth, it has empowered citizens to actively participate and have an active role in the
election.

Indeed, social media has connected people, allowed content sharing, permitted quick
communications, and given birth to a creative expression of ideas. Certainly, there is a
prevailing notion that Obama is president because his team was the best at understanding,
deploying, innovating, and adapting the possibilities of social media.

Works cited
Ames. Scott. Kenneth. The Influence of Social Media on American Politics. Johns Hopkins
University. 12 April. 2014. 14 Nov. 2014.
Ceron, Andrea. Curini, Luigi. Every tweet counts? How sentiment analysis of social media can
improve our knowledge of citizens political preferences. News media and society
quarterly 16.2 (2014): 340-358.Print.
Grofman, Bernard; Trechsel, Alexander H.; Franklin, Mark. The Internet and Democracy in
Global Perspective: Voters, Candidates, Parties, and Social Movements. Berlin: Springer,
2014. Print.
Spierings. Niels. Jacobs. Kristof. Getting Personal? The Impact of Social Media on Preferential
Voting. Political Behavior 36.1 (2014): 215-234. Print
Johnson, Dennis W. Campaigning in the 21st century. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.