Can’t Stop/Won’t Stop: Bayh VP Edition
The anti-draft campaign against Sen. Evan Bayh’s (D-Ind.) vice-presidential bid is picking up some steam. A Facebook group opposing Bayh reached about 1,500 members by Thursday morning — I joined the group and wrote about here — and last night organizers sent out their first call to grow their ranks through social networks:
“„It’s been 17 hours or so since the birth of this group and we’re off to an amazing start. We outnumber every one of Bayh’s groups on Facebook and are growing at the rate of about 8 people per minute right now… take a moment to click the "Invite People to Join" button…
“„Barack Obama has made history in this campaign by using new communication tools to build a better and stronger base. It is in the very spirit of this campaign that we are using these tools to help him build a better and stronger ticket.
The group, which was first reported in my TWI post describing "something close to the opposite of a draft" by bloggers, has now drawn coverage from the The New York Times. Carl Hulse writes:
“„Some prominent liberal bloggers have gotten behind an online push that amounts to a reverse draft of Mr. Bayh... the Facebook effort shows the sort of discontent from the left that Mr. Obama is likely to encounter should he invite Mr. Bayh on to the ticket.
Thus far, the group has apparently grown through blog and media exposure — not viral social networks. The vast majority of 38 members who responded to a discussion thread about how they found the site, for example, named blogs. Only four said they found it through friends, and only one learned of the group from the official Facebook feed — how most large Facebook groups grow. That means the core members are highly informed early adopters, and the next wave of growth could be large if they spread invites through their networks.
The group dwarfs Bayh’s official Facebook group, which collected 113 members after several years online. It’s not for lack of effort. Bayh recorded a YouTube address in 2006, "Facebook Evan Bayh," asking young Democrats to "Facebook" him.
