Obama’s MySpace Control Issue
03 May 2007 10:05 am by Taylor Marsh
This story just won’t go away and for good reason. Many others have chronicled
the Obama campaign’s trouble with the tubes. However, it’s about a lot more
than that. It’s an issue about control, but also something else. It reveals
that even though Mr. Obama and his team talk about running a different type
of campaign, when the people took over and ran with it out of enthusiasm, in
the end, Obama’s team became uncomfortable not having total control. At least that’s
my take from the outside looking in, especially the more and more I read on
Mr. Obama.
For instance, take the rumor turned mainstream article by Howard
Fineman, who had the much talked about Obama talking points memo fall, according
to Fineman, “into my lap (or, more specifically, into my hotel room)
the other day in Columbia, S.C.”
Old School Obama
On the campaign trail, he is the picture of casual cool: the tieless, open-necked
embodiment of a new generation and style.However, behind the scenes, he is as old-school methodical as they come,
with an operation that is not as experienced as Clinton’s, but that
has the focus and discipline to try to run with her. The results are serious,
and thorough, though at times the scripted rigor borders on the comic.
“Old-school methodical” is not going to cut it with the unbridled
enthusiasm on the web. Obama’s team found that out the hard way.
As for Joe Rospars lengthy post on “Our
MySpace Experiment,” you can read the whole thing for yourself. Most
of it tracks with my own reporting on how the relationship between Anthony
and the Obama new media team started out, all the way up through their initial
discussions with him about possibly coming on board and working out an understanding
for shared management of the site.But what strikes me as odd about it is Rospars’ claim that Anthony’s “list
of itemized financial requests” came unbidden, after the workload on
the page exploded and Anthony cut off the campaign’s password access to the
site. Rospars would have you believe that Anthony was in effect extorting
the campaign by witholding access, but my notes of my conversations with Obama
staff, which were “on background” make clear that Anthony only produced
that proposal (the $39,000 plus the $10,000 for possible advertising spending
by the campaign on MySpace) at the request of Chris Hughes. … ..
The bottom line right now is that there was not counter offer to a price the
Obama team thought too high. As someone who does this political stuff for a
living, which deserves ample compensation because of the product put out that includes my radio word, I find the outcome of this whole tale deplorable. It doesn’t matter if the MySpace page for Obama started out of passion
or not. In the end, something of value was created. Seriously, it’s not like
the Obama team doesn’t have the money. One good story
just happened recently when the creator of the Obama – Hillary ad got an offer
for a real time job. Value is value, no matter how it manifests. If a campaign covets what’s been created they should pay for it or let the person who put it together keep it.
Be sure to check out Cujo’s Hot Topics post on it, too.
This saga isn’t over, but what it reveals about Obama goes way beyond the simple
MySpace fiasco. It’s about what Obama presents to the public and what’s going
on behind the scenes. The two images don’t meet if you ask me. “Old-school methodical” just collided with new tech passion, one demanding control the other not, and Mr. Obama and his team didn’t rise to the occasion. They freaked and grabbed what they could not control. That speaks volumes about Mr. Obama’s “new” kind of politics. It’s nothing new at all.
