That video brings to mind a quote from British newspaper The Economist, which said that “If only the real McCain had been running.”

Not being an American, I did not follow your country’s presidential race all that much, so I am not particularly well qualified to make a great deal of informed comment. Nevertheless, it did appear to me as a casual observer that McCain was flip flopping all over the place.

On the subject of social media, I feel that overall social media start to exert an increasingly significant influence in terms of political campaigns throughout the democratic world, particularly in wealthy countries where connectivity rates are high.

I think this is a positive trend, and not only because of the increase in levels of involvement which you mention. I really feel that social media has allowed people to access a considerably wider degree of public opinion and to hear a significantly broader range of views in relation to a range of topics, including politics.

In the old days, a disproportionate degree of influence over public opinion rested with a small and exclusive network of journalists, and there was little opportunity for the general public to gain exposure to viewpoints which were outside the realm of those put forward by traditional media.

Nowadays, however, all you have to do is look within the blogosphere or one of the social media forums and find an extremely rich and diverse range of opinion with respect to almost any topic of any significant interest or importance.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks for sharing your perspective here.

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