Barack Obama Loses Some 'Friends' on MySpace

Barack Obama may be losing some "friends" on MySpace. He's already lost one. In a telltale sign that this U.S. presidential election will be different from all others because of the unpredictable role social networking will play in the race, the Democratic campaign has taken over a MySpace site begun by a fan.

Sometime after the number of friends climbed to 160,000 on the site, the AP reports that the campaign staff bucked horns with Joe Anthony, the 29-year-old Los Angeles paralegal who started the fan page. The campaign used Anthony's page as the official Barack Obama MySpace page when MySpace opened its Impact campaign site.

But as the site gain popularity, amassing four times more "friends" than any other candidate's MySpace page, the Obama campaign grew concerned with the ability of someone outside the campaign to run it. The campaign moved to take it over, and MySpace stepped in to say they could take the site's URL, while Anthony has the right to take the content and contact information of all the friends who were on the page when he ran it. The immediate result: The Obama campaign is trying to rebuild its MySpace base—and its goodwill on the social-networking site popular with teens and young adults.

None of the stories clearly spell out the differences between Anthony and the Obama campaign. But this sure seems like a foolish and terribly short-sighted move on the part of the campaign. Campaigns are fueled by ardent supporters who volunteer their time to forward their candidate's cause. Why they couldn't work out a compromise with a guy who brought them 160,000 eyes and ears is something they may regret big time.

True, this is new territory for everyone involved, especially for campaign consultants who are accustomed to having masterful control of the candidate's message. I am sure they just hate the unbridled democracy the web affords in our democratic process. But the web is more than a portal for fund-raising donations. There are many voices clamoring to be heard on the other side of these clicks, and that's a beautiful (and yes, messy) thing in a democracy.  

Here's Joe Anthony's personal page, and the official Obama campaign page. For more info, check out this Washington Post story and these posts on the TechPresident blog. Then sound off on whether you think the campaign handled this well—or not.

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