“I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States.” President Franklin Roosevelt’s opening line sounds just as personal today as it did in 1933 during the first “fireside chat.” For the first time, a president used technology to establish an intimate rapport with the general population. Since becoming the president-elect, Barack Obama has also started addressing the nation by radio as well as YouTube. Few are surprised by this move after watching Obama’s campaign wholeheartedly embrace technology in rallying national support. From text messages to e-mails to iPhone applications, Obama had it covered on all fronts. Previously, the use of technology for political networking was dismissed as a gimmick. John McCain admitted during an interview with The New York Times last July that he was dependent on others to use the Internet. Meanwhile, Obama has over 3 million Facebook friends to date. Obviously, candidates can no longer ignore technology.

Obama ran his campaign with unprecedented knowledge of the digital age. One week before the election, Obama bought airtime on several major networks. Obama’s election e-mails filled inboxes in every state. Videos were posted and reposted on countless online blogs while photos from the road continuously streamed to Obama’s Flikr account. Even traditional TV ads referred people to barackobama.com for details on the issues. The Internet ended up playing a pivotal role in the election; The LA Times reported nearly half of Obama’s record-breaking $650 million campaign donations came from online fundraising.

Once online campaigning proved to be so lucrative, other politicians have started jumping on the bandwagon. The New York Times revealed a candidate for Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, blatantly modeled his own website after Obama’s, right down to the layout and color scheme. Clearly politicians are still grappling with the secret to the Obama campaign’s success if they think a website’s template is the key.

The real reason technology worked well with Obama’s campaign is because his staff understood it was not merely a gimmick. They knew technology allowed them to establish a more personal relationship with the voters without filtering their message through secondary channels. Ironically, had McCain understood the advantages of a technological campaign, he may not have struggled so much with the “gotcha media.” On the other hand, CNN had already legitimized the Internet in a public forum as a medium of the digital age. During the 2007 primary season, CNN hosted two groundbreaking debates where the candidates fielded user-submitted questions from YouTube. After witnessing the use of the Internet as a political tool so early in the primaries, it seems odd McCain would openly admit to The New York Times during the final six months of his campaign, “I don’t e-mail, I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail.”

While McCain preferred his cell phone throughout the campaign, Obama’s Blackberry rarely left his side. The Blackberry provided a direct conduit to Obama for all forms of information. Instead of printing out briefings and other documents for him to review, Obama’s campaign explained they just forwarded it all to his Blackberry along with news and e-mail updates. Although he was elected using a very high-tech strategy, Obama may have to forfeit much of his electronic freedom before taking office in January.

For a multitude of national security concerns, most officials in Washington agree it would be safer to keep the president off e-mail. George W. Bush told Yahoo News in an interview that, before taking office, he can remember “firing off e-mails at all times of the day to stay in touch with my pals.” Bush said he looks forward to finally using it again once he is no longer president because “there’s no better way to communicate with them than through e-mail.”

But what does this mean for the president-elect? Since nearly any technology can be hacked, a presidential e-mail account would never be completely confidential. Although Obama will have access to many methods of communication, e-mail may end up off limits. Who knows? Obama may find that a lack of e-mail makes for a less stressful presidency. Although no official decision has been made, if Obama cannot use e-mail it will be ironic that his campaign used technology so successfully he must now leave his e-mail privileges at the door.

Casey Skeens ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in French.