On November 14th, President-elect Barack Obama posted his first weekly address on youtube. The address’ length was about three minutes and thirty seconds long, briefly addressing a variety of issues. Among other topics, (such as health care, the economic crisis, and education) President-elect Obama discussed his green energy plans: “...investing $150 billion dollars to build an American green energy economy that will create five million new jobs, while freeing out nation of the tyranny of foreign oil, and saving our planet for our children.”

The address didn’t go particularly far into specifics, but it did give a general consensus of Obama’s views on issues that will be of the utmost importance when his first Presidential term begins. Obama knows as well as anyone that he is inheriting a financial mess right off the bat on January 20th, so he wasted no time on bringing up the subject on his first address.

“As we act in concert of other nations, we must also act immediately here at home, to address America’s own economic crisis…we’ve lost jobs for ten straight months, nearly 1.2 million jobs this year. Many of them in our struggling auto industry. And millions of our fellow citizens lie awake each night, wondering how their going to pay their bills, stay in their homes, and save for retirement. Make no mistake: this is the greatest economic challenge of our times.”

Though it will be a privilege to hear from the President each week (President Bush’s lack of communication with the American people regarding his decisions was one of the many downfalls of his time in office), it is amazing to have witnessed how youtube and the internet has shaped politics. Political advertisements and messages from candidates themselves spread via the internet more than ever this campaign. Obama’s campaign garnered 3,153,736 supporters on facebook, 135,741 followers on twitter, and uploaded 1,822 videos onto youtube. Though the fundamentals of Obama’s weekly youtube address are similar to those of President Roosevelt’s fireside chat’s, they offer the public a much greater chance to interact with their Government, and have a voice when it comes to decision making in Washington. Democrat, Republican, or Independent, it is intriguing to watch how politics has changed with the emergence of the internet.