As the stakes and costs of becoming president have risen, so has the number of channels and types of media available for campaigning. Trump was the first presidential candidate to truly harness the power of Twitter, with Obama being the first to deeply exploit social media. Just as the advents of internet, TV and radio shaped the way more recent candidates run their campaigns, so also have the technological advances of history directly influenced the elections in their respective times.Mr. Washington - The Only Uncontested US PresidentAs the newly formed Americans adapted to a life free from British rule, the plans of George Washington to go home after the Civil War to live a quiet life were derailed. America would have no other leader and public sentiment manifested in the form of letters by the 1000's.Letters poured into Mount Vernon-from citizens great and small, from former comrades in arms, even from other shores. Many told Washington that his country needed him more than ever and that there was no justification for his refusal. While he warmed slightly to the idea, he still told a friend, "I feel very much like a man who is condemned to death does when the time of his execution draws nigh." Read more... The United States presidential election of 1788-89 was the first quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Monday, December 15, 1788, to Saturday, January 10, 1789.Birth of the "Whistle Stop" - Campaigning on the MoveOne of the first technologies to substantially impact how candidates campaigned was the locomotive, which would begin to replace the use of canals 40 short years later, around 1830.In the 19th century, when travel by railroad was the most common means of traveling long distances over the vast expanses... Read More Here...
