"Campaigning is a sexy process, Governing isn't."

FAIRFAX, Va. –Students studying online journalism at George Mason University met with Washington Post politics and Internet reporter Jose Antonio Vargas via videoconference Jan. 29 in conjunction with CSPAN-3’s Distance Learning Class, Pace University, and University of Denver.

Vargas set the tone for the videoconference by talking about the change from a federal approach to government to a more grassroots approach. Throughout the interview Vargas highlighted the significance the Internet had in respect to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Vargas also expressed how he envisioned the Internet would affect Obama’s presidency.

“The Internet brought people together, something that is new to politics, letting people within social networks to get together independent of campaign,” said Vargas.

In the beginning of Obama’s campaign, the website BarackObama.com boasted an e-mail list of 13 million addresses. It was Vargas’ opinion that without the influence of the Internet, Obama would not have won the election.

Now, since Obama’s main website has switched over to WhiteHouse.gov, the list has dropped to 5 million e-mail addresses. Vargas described the difficult “careful dance” in which Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, has to now approach the e-mails sent to WhiteHouse.gov and ObamaForAmerica.com listings.

Expressing a similar sentiment as students towards a flood of e-mails from Obama and Plouffe, Vargas said that people need to feel as if the e-mails are not concerned with donations and frivolous campaign details; but instead were streamlined to communicate national issues.

Vargas felt that text messages, Obama’s personal twitter page, and the accessible Obama websites like MoveOn.org were certainly strengths of Obama’s campaign, something that was lack within Republican candidate John McCain’s strategy.

“Obama realized early you have to build a movement around you. McCain was only running a campaign,” said Vargas in relation to the technology savvy campaign run by Plouffe.

Such a movement has been marked by use of technology which is used on an everyday basis by young voters, a large group of voters that Vargas described as the “silent majority.”

After fielding questions from students at the three participating universities, Vargas turned the discussion towards YouTube in the political sphere. While it remains that YouTube is a direct conduit of informal communication, Vargas felt that politicians need to take a different approach.
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He pointed out that YouTube isn’t television, and politicians should craft their messages to encompass more of a “lets work together” environment rather. Vargas’ interview can be viewed in its entirety on C-SPAN 3’s streaming website.