Darjeelink - Alexis Perrier

How to promote your 2008 US election candidate when you are not an American ?

With the rise of user generated content and its impact on web site visibility, with online shops and online payment solutions, there are ways to act effectively to promote your candidate inn lections you’r not allowed to take part.

The current election race for the democratic nominee is widely watched from all over the world. Check the late edito by Roger Cohen in yesterday’s Herald Tribune : Roger Cohen: American Democracy is Riveting. At least I am focused on this electoral race. I would be veryu happy of Clinton ended  up being the democratic candidate for the white house but I have a penchant for Obama. At least Barack Obama knows that other countries besides the United States do exists. He also knows that different realities exists on other parts of the world.

Here are a few ways you can influence the US elections. They are tiny but do they hold less influence than actually voting ?
Of course these would also work to support, let’s say, an opponent to the Putin soft dictatorship, if there is any left by the time the Russian election take place.

The most direct way is to give some money to the candidate you support.
It’s very easy, you can

1) buy Barack Obama’s books on amazon

2) buy a cap or a  t-shirt from the Barack Obama store

3) You can also directly contribute to the campaign by donating money . Just follow the link https://donate.barackobama.com/match

It works. According to the IHT :

Senator Barack Obama raised $32 million in January for his presidential bid, tapping 170,000 new contributors to rake in nearly double the highest previous one-month total for any candidate in this election cycle.

4) Finally you can give money to associations that support Barack Obama.

You can also raise the visibility of Barack Obama online and offline

5) Offline, just buy a cap, a pin, a bumper sticker and wear it everytime you go out. American tourists may cross your path and believe me they are sometimes very surprised to see a foreigner wear Obama’s colors. Become a walking billboard for your favorite candidate. You never know how many people you may influence this way.

6) Online, create a group on facebook that supports Barack Obama or join one of the 500 existing groups.

7) Join a prediction market platform such as bet2give and buy shares so that the market will predict the victory for your candidate

Blog about Barack. The more you blog about Barack, the more visibility he will have on Google. It’s linear.

9) Email people you know in the US and discuss with them why they ought to vote for Barack Obama