Introduction
The online campaign in form of social networking incorporates My space, Facebook, YouTube and other online sites have been used in McCain campaign and has helped many Americans and another possible voter in easy access of the information related to McCain qualities of leadership, background, his plans as a president and keeping them in contact with his general campaigning process. We can easily compare him with his opponent thus making it easy to choose whom to vote for in the forthcoming election. According to McCain’s online campaign, he urges citizens to join and register with his Party, with some of his campaign pledges being; to lower government spending, taxes and to enhance and make strong, national defense. The online campaign involves telephone, or in-person interviewing of webmasters, Campaign officials.
While at school, McCain led other students both in class and various school-based unions. He was on the front line to condemn bullying and helped the victims of bullies. These character traits have been demonstrated throughout McCain’s life, and they have an impact on the current political position of McCain. (Alexander, 2002). His character traits were developed since he was young, where he showed to have an aggressive attitude towards competing and prevailing in all aspects.
During his captivity period, he was tortured, and had to spend approximately five years in prison, after which the Paris peace Accords of 1973 released him. in 1981, McCain retired from the Navy, and later the following year, he represented Arizona’s first congressional district in the United States House of representative, He served for two years and in 1986, he became the senate and he retained the seat for the three subsequent elections which were carried out in the following years.
Announcement of McCain
The official announcement of McCain concerning his run for the presidency in the forthcoming elections was made in Portsmouth in New Hampshire. He started his campaign for the forthcoming election last year, and early this year, he became the party’s front runner. He won against his close competitors and attained victories and delegates which have made his presumptive nominee status so solid. McCain attained strength for the 2008 campaign from various dimensions. Among these are the national name, his recognized military experience and service as a POW, the cycle of his previous cycles, and the business and industry contributions.
McCain had many challenges during his campaigns for the 2008 elections. Among these problems includes the ones related to fundraising, which occurred as a result of his supporting comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, which the Republican electorate did not recognize. The McCain campaigning staff stepped aside, with the chief strategist and campaign manager departing. However this did not change McCain’s stand, instead, he used straight talk Express, sponsored events, and debates to enhance the campaign continuity. (McCain 2007)
McCain was bolstered by the Boston Globe endorsement, and he renewed the New Hampshire 2000 strength. He used various newspapers, such as the Manchester union-leader, to resurge. The impact of all his strength and continued spirit was detected in early 2008 when McCain has continuous victories. In January of this year, he won the New Hampshire primary. In a close contest from Massachusetts Mitt Romney, and later in the month, he replaced the former governor of South Carolina primary and then won the Florida primary. These victories made McCain great favor, because some of his rivals, specifically Rudy Giuliani dropped out of campaigning and dedicated his support to McCain. In February, McCain won more delegates over his opponent to the 2008 Republican convention; he led towards the Republican nomination after Romney departed from vying due to the low number of delegates and states which he got. This has given McCain the courage to continue campaigning online. (Borowski 2008).
The online election campaign is carried out in many social networking forms, whose aim is to ensure that a candidate gets the most votes possible. It is thought that the results of the online poll have effects on the general election. Candidates keep changing texts and speeches to ensure that they win the most votes against their opponents.
Elections and campaigning process
McCain on line campaign involves managers and is based on utilizing money got from fundraisings. He urges voters to vote for candidates based on delegates, a candidate who has a good economic plan for the Americans, and a candidate who can ensure security while enhancing the cultural heritage of Americans. With this, he expects to win because he became a presumptive nominee after getting more delegates, with wins in the Texas primary and Ohio primary. However, this nomination is to be made official at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
In hypothetical general elections matches of the polls made in March, McCain was leading against Obama and Clinton. The poll results were reported by Rasmussen and Zogby international and were above the error margin. McCain stays in the news since the Democratic has strong hopes on the race. The nomination has enhanced the online campaign of McCain and subsequent implementation of the election strategy. Online campaign and elections’ results have not been constant. There have been times when the votes indicate his victory, and other times he gets a defeat, raising rumors that he intended to drop out of the Presidency race. He used many tactics to win votes, and the immigration bill was one of them. The bill didn’t get a breakthrough in the Senate, and this made him lose many supporters and campaigners in South Carolina and New Hampshire.
McCain has maintained a constant Social Network throughout his campaigning process. McCain said that he intended to maintain a peaceful campaign that respects his opponents, which he would not have any negative issues. He claimed that the entire world was fed up with the many negative campaigns which many candidates run. In his campaign he suspended staffers for sending videos charged with racism, involving his opponent Obama and his controversial preacher, and in his subsequent campaign he pointed out that it was learned that Dayton was responsible for sending the video, which Politico.com internet site claimed to have used the controversial words of Obamas’ preacher to show how Obama was not patriotic. Dayton was punished appropriately. (Reuters 2008).
It is through social networking where McCain, was considered to have a plan to develop a matching fund system which was criticized with regard that he intended to use the funds for his benefits. In this case, he was condemned for misusing the campaign finance law, but later using the same media, he was regarded as a champion in financial reform. (MMA, 2008).
McCain held a conference with bloggers in between Texas events and fundraising, where he expressed his joy of holding three points ahead of his opponents. He insisted on working hard to win Texas and Ohio, he was assured of victory because of Obama’s comment which showed that Obama was to go back to Iraq Military if Iraq militarily if Al-Qaeda was to establish a base there. This was of great encouragement to McCain, because the Al-Qaeda had a base there, and this would create a fight with Islamic jihadists’ radicals, promoting McCain’s victory. (Geraghty, 2008).
According to McCain’s online manifesto, he has many plans for the Americans. He urges the Americans to consider individual candidates and what he has for the citizens. In his case, he intends to help American families in alleviating economic challenges faced by many American families such as gas prices, unusually loss of jobs, and threatened mortgages among others. According to McCain, many Americans pay large amounts of money to purchase gases, despite their poor sources of funds. He claims that it’s the time the Americans need to be relieved from this pain, and promises to deal with the problem immediately after they elect him. He said he would achieve this by instituting a gas tax holiday, where a congress will be developed to ensure suspension of the gas and diesel tax from memorial day to Labour day, thus becoming a holiday.
McCain intends to minimize transportation and food costs. Among these is the sugar quota which increases food prices, and ethanol subsidies. He prefers to end policies that contribute to this high cost, rather than limiting American goods trade, which would have an impact on the general economy of the American. He takes time to show citizens how some candidates discourage trade to minimize costs without considering its general implication to the country’s economy. (McCain 2008).
McCain has a history of being a POW in Vietnam and his online campaign; this becomes an added advantage against his opponents. According to his experience in the prison, he tells how human dignity is abused, and this is what happens each day to the prisoners. This combined with his dedication to the service of the public has made McCain build fundamental commitment against human dignity assaults. During his campaign, he says that during his presidency human dignity and life sanctity will be protected. (Dow Jones & Company, Inc.2008).
McCain uses these measures to ensure that Americans’ high living costs are confronted a factor that shows how McCain is financially conservative. He is raising money and spending the money on the presidential campaign. McCain is in favor of liberalization of trade unlike other leaders in the presidential race. He intends to control the general spending of the government a fact which contradicts with the other Democrats nominees, as they aim at increasing the government spending. With this, he expects to get more votes from the citizens compared to his opponents. (Economist Newspaper 2008).
In his online campaign, McCain says that voters need to vote for a candidate who considers taxes and their threats on economic prosperity and growth, and someone who can cut pro-innovation tax once he becomes the president. McCain has been leading against internet taxes and being a president, he intends to maintain a permanent ban of these taxes, as well as the taxes levied from new cellular telephones. With this, he expected to have more votes during the election, because he has held a track record of commitment to simple, low, and fair taxes. In his plan, he intends to lower taxes for middle-class working families and increase the personal dependents exemptions to almost double the cost to lower the tax code burden, and to help middle-class workers to have some savings. He intends to maintain current income and tax paid on investment to fight Democrat’s plans for increasing tax in 2011, He argues that entrepreneurs are very important in American innovation, prosperity, and growth, and therefore they need not be taxed after their submission. (Economist Newspaper 2008).
Advantages of online campaigning
Candidates’ level of interest and his or her demography can be determined. Content of Web site analysis helps in drawing inferences about candidate’s message to voters.
The online campaign helps candidates to present themselves to the voters, where they present the plans they have for themselves and their country. The voters can be surveyed effectively and their reaction regarding the candidates can be easily determined.
Online campaigns and subsequent online voting, helps in determining the voters’ current stand, from which the candidates can easily determine their progress, and make any necessary changes in various areas of their campaign before the actual voting day.
Online campaign enhances the interaction between the voter and candidate in the decision-making process, helping the voters to make their vote choices. The candidates get their voter’s needs through the interaction, and they target fulfilling them. Voters dedicate their votes to candidates who seem to have concerns about their needs, and protection.
Disadvantages of an online campaign
Internet-based campaign greatly depends with mass media coverage dynamic. This greatly affects the campaign. The poor the media coverage, the poor the online campaign, and subsequent poor and unreliable online poll results.
Not all voters can have access to internet campaign sites and this limits the number of voters who interact with the candidate. This in turn lowers the number of voters who participate in online voting, making the poll results unreliable.
The sites used by various candidates keep changing throughout the campaign course, which inconveniences many individuals. On the other hand, a particular candidate can use many ways of social networking which not all voters can access. In such cases, an individual misses some of the candidates’ information and in many cases, candidates’ texts and speeches keep changing throughout the campaign course.
Some of the candidates’ images and graphics are not easily downloaded, while others are lost when downloading.
A lot is spent on an online campaign, which could be used in the country’s development; one can be defeated in the general election despite the expenses
References
Alexander, P 2002, John McCain life, John Wiley and Sons, United States.
Borowski, G 2008, McCain shifts campaign focus to Democrats, Journal Sentinel Inc. , Web.
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.2008, Campaign 2008, wall street journal, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Web.
Economist Newspaper Limited 2008, America’s trade policy, Economist Newspaper Limited.
Geraghty, J 2008, Campaign spot, National Review Online , Web.
McCain 2007, An Enduring Peace Built on Freedom, Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. Web.
McCain 2008, McCain economic plan, John McCain, Web.
Media Matters for America 2008, ‘champion of campaign finance reform’, Media Matters for America, Web.
Reuters, 2008,’McCain campaign suspends staffer for race video’, Web.