Guest blogged by Lynn Stinson, a recent graduate of Allegheny College. Stinson will be a student at GWU’s Graduate School of Political Management this autumn.

What chance did a young, seemingly inexperienced black Senator have against one of the most prominent women in the Democratic party? At a first glance, it seemed it would be a struggle for Barack Obama. He lacked adequate experience and was facing a woman that many claimed would easily capture the nomination. However, a series of primaries would result in a victory for Barack Obama despite these claims. How did he manage this? By turning his attention away from traditional politics and towards a new kind of politics, politics focused around the latest technology available.

Hillary Clinton ran an amazing campaign by traditional standards. In fact, she raised more money than ever before via the traditional mode of fundraising. The catch was plain and simple; Barack Obama was steering his campaign away from this traditional mode and moving it entirely towards a technological based fundraising movement. The opportunity to utilize the latest technological advances was available for both Democratic candidates. However, one candidate chose a different path as described by Joshua Green in his article in The Atlantic:

in a colossal error of judgment, the Clinton campaign never made a serious approach, assuming that Obama would fade and that lack of money and cutting-edge technology couldn’t possibly factor into what was expected to be an easy race.

Hillary quickly received a wake up call as Barack Obama surpassed her in fundraising figures, with most of his funding coming from the enormous success his campaign had found using the Internet. Not only did he raise money in astronomical numbers, but he did it by involving supporters and making them part of the process.

A Silicon Valley based website, My.BarackObama.com, propelled the campaign to financial success as well as evidenced the enthusiasm of Obama’s supporters. The website is a social networking page that provides tools to help campaign and fundraise for the candidate. A proponent of the website and Barack Obama’s new-media director, Joe Rospars, explains the success in Green’s article in The Atlantic,

We’ve tried to bring two principles to this campaign. One is lowering the barriers to entry and making it as easy as possible for folks who come to our Web site. The other is raising the expectation of what it means to be a supporter. It’s not enough to have a bumper sticker. We want you to give five dollars, make some calls, host an event. If you look at the messages we send to people over time, there’s a presumption that they will organize.

Slow and steady wins the race, and for Barack Obama, it was the small victories that contributed to his overall win. Small contributions of five dollars here, ten dollars there, have greatly benefited this campaign. The ability to donate such small amounts and truly involve yourself into the democratic process has become available because of Barack Obama’s utilization of technology.

So how did he beat Hillary Clinton, who was presumed to easily claim the nomination? By turning to technology and embracing the advances that have developed even since the campaign has embarked. Not only did Obama use the Internet to raise money in numbers unheard of in past campaigns, but he did it in a way that involved his supporters by allowing them to take the reigns into their own hands. Much like past presidents that have embraced technological advances and reaped the benefits - like Andrew Jackson and the printing press, John F. Kennedy and the television, FDR and the radio - Barack Obama has utilized what was available to him to its fullest as is pointed out by Marc Ambinder in his article “HisSpace” within The Atlantic. The success met by Obama and his campaign has already made a gigantic splash and has translated into the nomination for this unlikely candidate; the culprit of this success is technology.