Obama's Secret Digital Weapon

Since Senator Barack Obama announced that he would forgo public financing for his Presidential bid, even more is being made of his campaign's prowess at raising record sums on the Web. Obama seems to have an almost magical ability to generate a spontaneous upwelling of political and financial support.

In fact, the presumed Democratic nominee has a secret weapon. It's a small, obscure firm called Blue State Digital, a market research-New Media hybrid that has played an instrumental role in fostering Obamamania. The campaign declined to discuss Blue State, but the firm says its handiwork and technology can be seen in the more than $200 million Obama has raised online, the 2 million phone calls made on the candidate's behalf, and in barackobama.com's social network of 850,000 users, who have organized 50,000 campaign events.