It should be apparent to everyone
by now that Barack Obama's presidential campaign is unlike any other
campaign that has preceded it. This not like any in the previous
century nor even the first of this new century. And there is one and only one element that has created this fundamental evolution in the art of politics....the Internet.



I saw a statistic a
few weeks ago that said that on average there are 1 million nine
hundred thousand new posts every day. Got that? 1,900,000 new posts
every day. The world we
live in is either hard-wired or Wi-Fi'ed everywhere. Breaking news
travels the globe in a microsecond as quickly even as the event is
occurring. The World Wide Web as we used to call it is no longer the
exclusive domain of techno-geeks and the cognoscenti. It is now belongs
to Everyman. But it has truly taken hold only in the last five years or
so.



Where do we shop? Where do
we look for news? Where do we find the latest political, social, or
international development? Where do we look for information on the
latest movies? Where do we go to instantly communicate with our friends
or family across the street or across the globe? The Internet. It is as
much a part of daily lives as TV, electricity, water or any other basic
element of life in the 21st century. And it is trans-generational.



And Barack Obama and his
campaign staff have taken hold of this unique tool and made it their
own. And here's the reason we will win this year. The Republicans don't
get it. They are still hidebound in their decades old practices and
traditions of political campaigning. Their attempts at using this
phenomenon have been laughable at best. But Obama and company have
mastered the art of 21st century communication. Not only have they used
it to raise tens of millions of dollars in amounts of twenty or fifty
dollars, but also they have capitalized on its ability to smack down
any lie, smear, attack, or deception that the Repubs and their minions
throw at them.



And so... Brothers
and sisters, today we are not turning the page in the history of our
country. No, we are closing the book. We are beginning a new volume
with fresh new blank pages waiting to record the return of greatness to
America. It is a new volume for a new millennium to be written by a new
generation.