Obama has more scheduled grassroots events than McCain around ... Sedona, Arizona?

BE-ELECTED
by Amy Weiss

It's not really surprising that John McCain has fewer Facebook and MySpace friends than Barack Obama. The majority of social networking site users are in their teens and 20s and represent the group we've come to know as "young voters" -- a contingency expected to heavily favor Obama.

But the McCain campaign realized that the Internet can be a useful tool and have been making improvements to the campaign site. While young voters may dominate social networking sites, many people of all ages, including many seniors, use the Internet regularly and my instinct is that Republicans use the Internet in general at about the same rates as Democrats. Many of these "improvements" are almost direct rip-offs of Obama's Web strategy, but I guess you can't blame them for emulating what works.

What is surprising though is the complete lack of enthusiasm or willingness to embrace the technology on the part of McCain supporters. Or maybe it's not so surprising, considering a recent poll saying only 14% of McCain supporters are "excited" (vs. 44% of Obama supporters.)

Still, I was surprised at how badly McCain was getting beat at the grassroots game. I visit the McCain campaign site every few days just to see what's up and I noticed today the campaign was spotlighting its "McCain Nation" effort. The campaign seems to understand the importance of organizing people in this election. In its words:

McCain Nation is a powerful grassroots tool that brings John McCain supporters together. Use the following tools to find events near you or host your own event! Elections are won by votes and by getting together with other McCain supporters in the field. Join this grassroots effort and you can play a key role in making John McCain the next President of the United States.

I was curious to see what this "powerful grassroots tool" had to offer, so I typed in my zip code. There are currently no events in the area you searched for, Click here to host a McCain Nation event. I realized the default search radius was 5 miles, so I pulled the bar down and chose the "25 miles" option. There are currently no events in the area you searched for, Click here to host a McCain Nation event. Hmm...I chose the maximum radius, "100 miles." There are currently no events in the area you searched for, Click here to host a McCain Nation event.

Okay, I'm from the Chicagoland area. Barack Obama country. No one expects McCain to even fight for Illinois, and his supporters here are probably pretty quiet and don't see much point to organizing. But the fact that there were NO events within 100 miles of me (that gets into Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana as well) surprised me a bit, so I decided to conduct a little experiment.  I chose a few zip codes from across the country and comparing the event results within 100 miles on both McCain and Obama's event finders.

Within 100 miles of me, there are 288 grassroots Obama events. Again, I'm in Obama territory, I guess this is to be expected. Next I searched my college roommate's zip code, from outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida in Broward County, a very contentious county in the 2000 recount debacle. Obama: 82 events, McCain: 1.

Then I picked what I assume to be a pretty Republican-leaning area (especially within a 100-mile radius): Montgomery, Alabama. Obama: 61, McCain: 0.

Let's try New York City, expected to go for Obama of course, but with so many people there must be some grassroots organizers on both sides, I thought. I was right-- Obama: 788, McCain: 3.

Oh, I know! Crawford, Texas. The town immediately associated with the Bush ranch (aka "The Western White House") and all things 43. Certainly they're getting excited for McCain, right? Obama: 109, McCain: 0.

Now this is getting weird. Finally, let's try Sedona, Arizona, home of the McCain family cabin. I expected here the same kind of McCain loyalty I found in my area to Obama. The results-Obama: 31, McCain: 0.

Zero McCain events within 100 miles of Sedona, Arizona? It sees even those in the excited 14% aren't doing much with their excitement.

This disparity begs the question, why are all the polls so close? We've heard so much about the importance of the Internet in this campaign in terms of networking and grassroots movements. Is Obama's Internet advantage going to translate to an electoral advantage by Election Day, or have we overestimated the importance of an online strategy?

BE-ELECTED