# Barack and the Battle of MySpace **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 2, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523 "2007-05-02T20:39:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Camelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Camelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camelot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/1 "2007-05-02T20:39:30Z")
Has anyone seen [this](http://www.techpresident.com/node/301)? Long story short, guy creates a MySpace profile three years ago for Sen. Obama. Campaign comes in at some point and starts working with the guy. At some point, the profile lands tons of media attention, and 160,000 MySpace friends, at which point, the campaign takes over the MySpace, refuses to compensate the guy for any of his work… ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/2 "2007-05-02T21:23:15Z")
This is a mistake by Senator Obama’s campaign staff, one that will cost them more than $39,000 in bad publicity. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/3 "2007-05-02T21:26:04Z")
I feel like the whole story is not being told here. $39,000 sounds like a bargain to me- and you retain a happy, influential volunteer. I’m sure they spent some huge chunk of that in consultant time while settling the issue anyway. I can’t see it being too damaging in the long run, but the campaign’s handling of the issue seems tone-deaf. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/4 "2007-05-02T21:51:15Z")
It’s early. Something like this could hurt a candidate right before the election (or a primary), but we’re still a long way away. It’ll be ancient history by January. Sounds like a mistake, if the link is correct. A mistake = something you learn from. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/5 "2007-05-02T23:25:32Z")
Obama’s campaign definitely dropped the ball on this one. Though the impact may be superficially slight, it directly impacts (and makes a poor impression with) the exact type of voter that Obama had been making significant headway with: tech-savvy grassroots types who are going to see the campaign as ungrateful to someone who showed lots of personal initiative in supporting their candidate. Much has been made about how blogs & YouTube and the like will help change the landscape of this presidential election, and Obama had been benefitting a lot from those putting the personal time and effort to create these “viral” sensations making so much press. This may put a damper on some of that. Enough to change the big picture story of his campaign trajectory? Maybe not. But it is a serious stumble that may not reverberate with the larger US public, but will signify something to a key demographic that seemed to be in his corner. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barack-and-the-battle-of-myspace/402523/6 "2007-05-02T23:55:37Z")
This sounds like the first in a series of fantasy books with colorful pastel cover illustrations.