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Obama’s reaction to the SOPA/PIPA legislation may have had a direct, negative impact on his ability to get re-elected. Hollywood and other media moguls are hitting the Obama administration where it hurts most, in the wallet (or, as it is termed at election time, in the war chest). It would be terrible if getting the Obama administration to take a stand on an issue important to us, the community of internet makers, cost the administration money to fund a re-election campaign. Obama’s position was encouraged by our community and it would be wonderful if we could help him out by voting with our dollars the same way Hollywood and big media are voting with theirs. Donate to the Obama campaign.

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There was quite the kerfuffel over the internet blackout / strike Wednesday (January 18th). In the blackout, a fair number of sites, most notably Wikipedia, blocked access to their content with an anti-SOPA message. The point was to raise awareness with people who do not closely follow technology news. And it worked. At least well enough to have a Twitter account, @herpderpedia, retweeting some under informed reactions.

More important than the antics on Twitter, the White House responded to a petition to stop SOPA. The response stated:

We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.

There was a great deal more to the White Hourse statement and everyone is encouraged to read it but this is the crux. We can’t burn the field to get the mouse.

The combination of these events, as well as the continued phone calls and letters from constituents, had a direct impact on the supporters of SOPA as tracked by propublica.org. The impact is well illustrated by screenshots of propublica.org on the 18th next to the 19th.¹²³

Unfortunately, Obama’s reaction may have had a direct, negative impact on his ability to get re-elected⁴. Hollywood and other media moguls are hitting the Obama administration where it hurts most in the wallet or, as it is termed at election time, in the war chest. It would be terrible if Obama’s administration taking a stand on an issue important to us, the community of internet makers, cost them the money to fund a re-election campaign. He did it for us and it would be wonderful if we could help him out by voting with our dollars the same way Hollywood and big media are voting with theirs. Donate to the Obama campaign.