Session: Obama Agonistes:

From Campaigning to Governing, The Struggle to Open Up Politics

In 2008, Barack Obama rode a wave of mass political participation to become the first African-American President in the United States. His campaign was widely described as a model for integrating bottom-up grassroots support–online and offline–with traditional top-down marketing. And his administration promised to transform government by making it more open, participatory and collaborative. How much has Obama delivered on these promises? And how much did he really change American politics? In this talk, Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and editor of techPresident.com will look at the myths, and realities, of Obama the candidate and president.