This photo shows the human side of this man, who is soon to become the most powerful man in the world. He is now the president elect of the United States, but he is also a Flickr contact of mine.
Will it be like Kevin Rudd, who was everyone’s facebook friend (including mine), until he became the Prime Minister of Australia?? Will it be seen by his aides as a security threat, to have such a public profile? This photo alone, had 151 comments, and another, also posted on 7 Nov 08 – election night – of he and his wife on the couch smiling into the camera, had 423 comments. He has a list of testimonials that scrolls down forever, but it just goes to show that the tide is changing in politics. Barack Obama is young and vital and charismatic. Girls scream and cry when they see him, like a pop idol. The fact that he is black, I think, is irrelevant.
Not that I have any illusions that Barack Obama spends any time on Flickr, uploading his own photos, and checking out his contacts’ photos (he has 7,142 contacts). I realise that it is just another arm of his publicity machine – but for a Pro Account of $30 per year, it is a lot cheaper that an ad on prime time TV. The first of his 50,423 items was posted on 3 Feb 07, at the start of his campaign, and after scrolling though all his sets, I can see they are all pictures of him on the campaign trail. There is not one set entitled “Christmas with the Folks” or “Picnic in the Park”. Though I will admit that he did take time out from his campaign to visit his ailing grandmother. I also admit that the cynic in me saw this as a clever ploy to attract the older voters, until I found out that she died 2 days before his election win.
What for me is amazing though, is that the internet is changing EVERYTHING. Social networking sites are becoming a significant form of communication for millions of people. So, why shouldn’t the pollies get onto the bandwagon???
