Politics.

After the 2008 presidential campaign in America, not only did Barack Obama won the hearts of the Americans, the Internet came out as a star, solidifying its role in politics.

Obama’s internet campaign changed politics.

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,”said Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post.

And again, on  7 November 2012, Barack Obama was re-elected President of the USA.

Obama tweeted a short and simple message “Four more years”, together with a photo of himself and his wife in an embrace.

Thanks to President Obama and his success in 2008 with internet campaigning, the Internet has become a huge part in political campaigning. Now, many leaders are embracing the medium as a vital part to campaigning.

For instance, the Philippines, the capital of social networking, is using it to drum up their political campaigns.

The Internet has definitely allow the public to have more access to the politicians. Obama has a Facebook account and so does Romney. Even PM Lee has Facebook. This allows them to be in touch with the public, their voters, making them more relatable and personal. Other than that, the public can easily watch videos of rallys and speeches made by the politicians online via YouTube and many others. Basically, the Internet brings the public closer to the politicians.

Besides that, by  highlighting a compelling speech form YouTube and sharing it on Twitter and Facebook, campaigns are able to generate widespread interest – people share the content among their friends rather than have it forced upon them as an advertisement. Smart isn’t it?

However, Internet in politics does have it limitations.

For instance, the video of Mitt Romney’s comment about America’s 47 percent.The video was leaked online and like other things on the Internet, it went vira and may have cost him his presidency.

Other than that, remember Tin Pei Ling? The Internet shot her in the foot too.

She was part of PAP’s political party.  The public went wild with her Facebook account. Her pictures became the laughing stock and she was bullied by the public. Just because of Facebook, she was under scrutiny by the public as her personal life is put on the platter for everyone to judge.

Even before the Internet, politicians’ live are constantly under scrutiny of the public.  Now, with the existence of the Internet, politicians have to be careful, more than ever  with their words and actions, be it in public or in private.