OBAMARAMA

I may be one of the few people left who is not convinced that MySpace is the be all end all for presidential candidates looking to harness the power of the internets, the absolute shibboleth of political success. I certainly appreciate the important role social networking sites can play in voter mobilization and momentum building, but at the end of the day — don’t shoot the messenger, now — it’s basically just a message board.

And that’s not worth much if you don’t have a message.

Fortunately, Sen. Obama’s got one — which may explain why he is cleaning up on the social networking scene. The Honolulu Advertiser reports today that on Impact Channel — MySpace’s new political component — Sen. Obama “already had 68,412 ‘friends’ as of this morning, by far the highest among the other candidates.”

According to the article, “Obama’s profile lists his status as ‘married,’ his occupation (’senator’), his ethnicity (’other’) and zodiac sign (’Leo’).”

Of course it’s great that the Obama campaign is dominating in this arena. I’d expect nothing less from a campaign so grounded in organic, grassroots political empowerment and the notion that everyone has a contribution to make. But if I turn on the computer one day to see a picture of Sen. Obama shotgunning a beer while “My Humps” plays in the background, I will be very disappointed.