Barack Obama Website Review

After reviewing Senator Obama's website, I believe it is very informative and hands on, as well as neat and understandable. After entering barackobama.com, the screen shows Obama seated in the grass, presumably in front of his home, with his wife Michelle and his children Malia and Sasha sitting next to him. Underneath this picture is a sign-up to "join the movement" or volunteer to help. I believe the picture was included to portray Obama as a family first, down-to-earth person who can relate to the middle class. Once you actually get to the website, there are tabs across the top that include Home Page, Learn, Media, Action, People, States, Blog, and Store.
On the Home Page, there are things such as an Obama-Biden interactive tax cut calculator, that processes data about yourself (such as annual income, marital status, and number of dependents) and shows the tax cut you would receive under Obama vs. McCain.
If you move your cursor over Issues, you would see a list of things the next president faces, such as the economy and the war in Iraq. If you were to click on one of these, you would see a blue box at the top of the screen that gives you the basic platform on the chosen issue. If you would like to see Obama's stance in more detail, you could scroll down and read it to it's full extent. I think that briefly stating the platform is a good way to give reader's the information they want without the hassle of searching through long chunks of text.
Under the Media tab, you can see political advertisements and bios of Barack, Michelle and Joe Biden, scroll through pictures from the campaign trail, and download screen savers, buddy icons, and posters. You can also purchase (and I'm not making this up) ringtones to your cellphone that have things like a hip hop group rapping "Go! Go! Go! Obama, Obama, Ohh!" and "This is Barack Obama. It's time to change America. Answer the call!". There is also an Obama album that is available for purchase and includes artists such as Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, John Legend, and Jill Scott. (Regardless of your
Under Action, there is a place for you to sign up to volunteer for campaigning as well as a place for you to donate to the Obama campaign.
There is also the tab labeled People. This is like McCain's website's Coalition tab, where people who fall into different minorities can come together in an online format to persuade other's of that minority to support their candidate of choice. Some of these groups include Seniors, Environmentalists, Americans with Disabilities, People of Faith, and even Republicans. All of the groups post events and opinions on a forum, and some have sub-groups that fall into a wider minority.
States is a category where you can click on your state and see current events and participate in something called Drive for Change, a program where citizens of a decided state campaign in swing states or states that are leaning Democrat (our nearest one is New Hampshire).
The Blog tab is where you can post opinions about Barack and Joe Biden, as well as watch clips from speeches on the trail.
And last but not least, the Store. Here is where you can buy Obama paraphernalia (such as T-Shirts, sweatshirts, hats, buttons, stickers, and the like). And for all my fashionistas out there, there is a section of the store called Runway for Change. This features items like an Obama T-Shirt that says "Dude, Where's the Hope?" by Juicy Couture, a Vera Wang "Vote Obama 08" T, celebrity designed T-Shirts that include Pharrel Williams, Jay-Z, Beyonce, and Tory Burch as their artists, and tank tops designed by Alexander Wang, Zac Posen, and Nanette Lepore. Oh, and the bags. Designers such as Diane von Furstenburg, Isaac Mizrahi, and Marc Jacobs (!) have all designed amazingly cute tote bags for Obama. To all my McCain supporters--I'm truly sorry for your loss.
On a more serious note, I believe that Obama is reaching out to the middle class with his emphasis on tax cuts (like the tax calculator) and interested in young people. There were interactive applications and technical downloads like ringtones. Overall, I found Obama's website to be very classy and interesting (and I'm loving that Marc Jacobs bag).
-Christina