According to Gideon Rachman ,talking about the US elections

it’s not very obvious that the internet has made this election qualitatively different from all other campaigns

But there are two major differences

First, 5.5 million people have watched all 35 minutes of Obama’sPhiladelphia speech on race on YouTube. In an age when the average TV newssound-bite is down to 12 seconds, this is extraordinary and heartening

and secondly

• the internet has transformed American campaign finance - and may have solvedone of the biggest problems with American democracy. The problem - as we allknow - is that elections are so expensive that candidates have to spend hugeamounts of time raising funds; and have to warp their positions to suit theprejudices of wealthy donors. But Obama has already raised around $300m in smalldonations via the internet

Gideon was chairing a debate at the US embassy in London on the impact of the internet on the presidential election. You can watch it HERE