Obama ready to embrace Internet as tool for persuasion and participation

Get ready for presidential fireside chats on YouTube. And how about Barack Obama "friending" thousands of members on a "myWhiteHouse" social network that could help get legislation passed? Just as Franklin Roosevelt used the new technology of radio and John Kennedy grasped the power of television, Barack Obama is poised like no president before him to embrace the Internet as an innovative way to communicate, attract support and keep millions of his supporters involved in their government. "Obama now presides over the largest, best-organized and most enthusiastic political operation in the country — and it's not going away after the election," said Omar Wasow, a co-founder of blackplanet.com, a network for African-Americans. "Obama has called for more civic engagement, and some of that will depend on new technology."