Since President-Elect Barack Obama’s election last week news has been flying fast. Here’s a few items that caught my eye.
Obama quickly launched an official transition website, appropriately called Change.gov. Featuring a blog and an invitation for users to submit their vision about what “America can be” and “where President-Elect Obama should lead this country.” The website briefly featured his campaign platform, which has been removed. The platform was captured on WhiteHouse2.org, a private effort to allow thousands of citizens to set the agenda for the new president’s first 100 days. The website links to this transition guide for Obama’s transition team and various nominees and appointees, which features among other useful information a directory of acronyms and this high-level organizational chart of the federal government. (See full size)
The Change.gov transition website is reminding some of his tech policy, released a year ago, which pledged he would let Americans review and comment on non-emergency legislation online for at least five days before signing it. Here’s a piece from Slate on the possibility the Obama administration’s website would function as a social network:
The sort of Web site the Obama team seems to be envisioning—one in which the president and his citizens hold deep discussions about the controversial issues of the day—will surely be much less focused than My.BarackObama.com, which had a singular goal: to get Barack Obama elected. Obama’s campaign Web site connected disparate people who shared a common passion; the White House social network will connect people who disagree with each other and with the president—and whose goals might be in conflict. So far, the Web hasn’t had a great record of bridging social divisions. If Obama can change that, maybe he really is a different kind of politician.
On another topic, Obama adviser and transition co-chair Valerie Jarrett recently reiterated he plans to create a White House Office of Urban Policy. In addition to the new office, his picks for many other posts will have a profound impact on our cities, including three posts Richard Layman is thinking about: Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Director of the Federal Transit Administration.
Around 10 p.m. last night, Barack Obama’s official Facebook page reached 1 million supporters. The news has generated buzz, and rightfully so. It dwarfs John McCain’s 147,000+ supporters, demonstrating his breadth of support. (techPresident has charts of various online popularity metrics) Politico’s Ben Adler reported the two campaign’s internal social networking tools have similar numbers - with my.barackobama.com over 900,000 and McCain Space reporting only “tens of thousands.”
I found it interesting it took so long to reach the 1 million milestone. After all, it took just 9 days for Stephen Colbert’s group to reach 1 million members in October 2007. Barack Obama’s independent “One Million Strong” group is only up to 566,000 after several months of trying. I don’t think it’s because of political apathy, especially since political groups opposing Bush and Clinton already hit the mark. What I think it suggests is that people take supporting a candidate seriously, even if that action is the single click it requires to join a virtual “group.” With five months remaining until the election, I wonder how high the numbers will go.
There’s no easy way to find a list of the biggest lists on Facebook, although a few lists exist. Here’s a sampling that have tasted the rarefied air of 1+ million supporters:
It involved hire a “drama-free” team, getting millionaire fund raisers to sell $3 key chains, and building an organization that reflected his personality — not the bad habits of the party establishment. It also meant technology — according to Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, “the Dean campaign was like the Wright brothers. Four years later, we’re watching the Apollo project.”
“Let us unite in common effort to chart a new course for America.”
– Barack Obama, June 3, 2008, St. Paul, Minnesota
“The most important thing we can do right now is to reengage the American people in the process of governance. To get them excited and interested again in what works, and what can work in our government, to make politics cool again, important again, and relevant again.”
– Barack Obama, February 11, 2008, College Park, Maryland
Yesterday it was brought to my attention not all of my friends who support Obama have signed up for his text messaging list. Subscribers receive short messages roughly once a week or less, related to major announcements in the campaign, primaries, and media appearances. You can sign up online, or by texting GO to OBAMA (62262). I first subscribed after seeing it advertised at his College Park rally earlier this year. The campaign website also offers a variety of ringtones, wallpapers, and suggests high-volume users should follow him on Twitter.
All the major presidential candidate websites are generally similar in their structure. All three feature an “issues” tab, with pages on a variety of issues. These sometime link to other materials, such as lengthier plans in PDF format or other materials, but I thought the choice of issues and length might tell us something about what each candidate’s campaign think is important. At the very least, it might speak to the interest groups they’re cultivating and their general philosophy about how much information they should provide before requiring visitors to click more. Of course, what candidates say about their priorities, and what they actually do in office can be quite different for a variety of reasons.
I noticed both Democrats have long pages on technology and innovation issues, a topic McCain omits entirely.
Barack Obama is also unique in organizing a variety of urban-related policy proposals and positions under the umbrella topic of Urban Policy, something that was added to the website since I scrutinized it last. As the first bullet to his plan he proposes creating a White House Office on Urban Policy to “develop a strategy for metropolitan America” and coordinate federal urban programs, reporting directly to the president.
Update: On the suggestion of Andrew Gelman, here’s a different version ranked by the difference in words between Obama and McCain.
Record high crude oil prices has put the federal gas tax in center stage, as McCain and Clinton have proposed a summer holiday of the 18.4 cent federal gas tax. Thomas Friedman blasted the short-sighted proposal, as well as our leader’s failure to create a coherent energy policy.
Calling it a meaningless “quick-fix” solution, Barack Obama argues the real solution lies in alternative fuels and higher fuel efficiency standards.
To that list I’d add increased investment in transit and a higher gas taxes, although I can understand why those proposals may not make it into a television ad in Indiana and North Carolina.
High gas prices don’t just effect consumers, they have resulted in record profits for oil companies. However, according to economic theory we should be doing the exact opposite of what McCain proposes if we want to cut their profits. Economists have found consumers pay roughly half the federal gas tax — the other half comes from the oil companies themselves. This study concludes:
Using the estimated coefficients, we can determine the incidence of federal and state specific taxes. An increase in the federal tax by 1¢ raises the retail price by 0.47¢ and decreases the wholesale price by 0.56¢. Thus, consumers and wholesalers each pay roughly half of the federal specific tax.
In effect, a higher federal gas tax would shift wealth from the oil companies profits to federal coffers, and help pay for badly needed infrastructure improvements.
