Paralegal’s “Obama” MySpace Page

Only in the brand-new world of user-managed online politics could news like this be reported:

"The manager of an unofficial Barack Obama MySpace page tells MTV News how the campaign took his URL.

"’They took it … they just took it from me.’

"That was how Joe Anthony described what happened this week when the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama took control of the unofficial MySpace page Anthony set up in Obama’s name in November of 2004.

"Granted, though clearly labeled as unofficial, the site has the valuable URL www.MySpace.com/barackobama and when the Obama camp approached Anthony in March to discuss working with them, the conversations were initially cordial.

"But in an interview with MTV News — one of only two he’s given this week — Anthony described how things quickly fell apart and he was left on the sidelines as the Obama campaign took over the site he estimates he spent 5 to 10 hours a day building up.

[snip]

"Anthony, who works as a paralegal in Los Angeles, said he had been maintaining the site on his own since 2004, building it up to the point where it had 100,000 friends and incubating a lively debate about all things Obama. He began working with the campaign in March, but the relationship grew rocky and when, according to him, MySpace began having Obama’s profile randomly pop up as a ‘Cool New Person’ last month, the number of friends jumped to 160,000 within a matter of weeks, drastically increasing Anthony’s workload."

Looks like Anthony has been able to keep some of the fruits of his labors…