The internet has become such a large part of our everyday lives that it has even affected how politicians now campaign. The first politician to effectively exploit that reach of the internet was Obama during the 2008 presidential elections. With the use of the web, Obama was able to campaign without the need to send out supporters to do door knocking or making cold calls. With weekly website traffic spiking over 1.25 million views, his website allowed him to raise campaign funds through donations at a much faster rate then traditional fund raising methods. This gave a huge edge to his campaign compared to his competitors who weren't even reaching 1 million weekly views.
Not only was he leading on website traffic, he also had a huge dominance on the social networks during this time. In 2008, Obama had over 400 thousand MrSpace "friends" while the next candidate was around 75 thousand. His Facebook supporters was even more numerous at nearly 1.25 million supporters on Facebook during the 2008 election year, while the next candidate barely had a quarter of a million supporters. This social network took Obama who was this random senators who barely had any experience in politics, and catapulted him into the spotlight during the 2008 elections, resulting in his eventual victory in the presidential race.
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