'Obama 2012' surges on Facebook; GOP group starts wiki for fed 'accountability'
President Barack Obama's reelection campaign was off and running on Facebook today with more than 65,000 people "liking" the campaign announcement within six hours. Also, group with ties to GOP strategist Karl Rove starts a federal accountability wiki.
President Barack Obama kick-started his reelection campaign today with an announcement on his Facebook page that drew 65,000 “likes” from supporters within six hours.
“Today we are filing papers to launch the 2012 campaign,” Obama posted. “Say that you’re in.”
More than 65,000 people on Facebook liked the message and 10,000 people commented within six hours after that.
The campaign also is encouraging Facebook supporters to share the “I’m In” message prominently on their own Facebook pages and send it to their Facebook friends, prompting several bloggers to note that Facebook is likely to play a significant role in the president’s reelection campaign. Obama has nearly 19 million followers on his personal Facebook page.
“Is Facebook now the most important weapon in a politician’s digital armoury? Barack Obama certainly seems to think so,” Rory Cellan-Jones, blogger for BBC News, wrote in a blog posting today.
In other news, Crossroads GPS, a group with ties to Republican strategist Karl Rove, has created the Wikiaccountability.org wiki as a clearinghouse for Obama administration documents,a ccordinig to a report from ABC News.
Registered users of the site can upload and search information, similar to sites such as Wikipedia or Wiki Leaks. The site already includes documents pertaining to expenses related to health care reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.