Obama-Nation Goes Virtual

(FiniteTimes.com) – When Lestat Destiny teleported onto Hillary Island for her daily prayer vigil, she was surprised to see several dozen people milling about. The Second Life virtual headquarters (unofficial) of the Clinton campaign was usually unoccupied, quiet. Yet today it teemed with life.

“I had one of those brief ‘Yay, we can win’ moment, but then I saw they were all clutching Obama banners and flags, and my heart sank,” Lestat types, her waif-like avatar starring off into the tropical distance. “Holding an Obama demonstration on Hillary Island… have they no shame?”

Reports of similar Obama demonstrations and sit-ins have been cropping up throughout the virtual world of Second Life this week, and many see it as a signal that campaign fatigue, at least on the virtual level, has started to sink in. Marches through SL shopping malls and sit-ins at such popular destinations as Welfare Island and the Flashbacks Club have been widespread. Even residential areas in-world have been hit.

“They came in with their banners and they just sit or dance there, chanting and altering their appearances,” types Mulekick Nightfire, a landowner in the residential area of Crete Estates. “There’s still a couple of them out there even now. Hey, I told you kids to get the hell off my digital lawn!”

While many lay the blame for the protests on the SL group Obama Hopemongers, some incidents are just spontaneously launched by stray Obama supporters who have had enough of the real world campaign and are itching for a general election match-up with John McCain. Ronnie2006 Wigglesworth is one such supporter.

“I can’t wait to meet John McCain in the general. His unofficial SL headquarters is so freakin’ lame,” Ronnie2006 types. “We had a fundraiser the other day in-world where we raised thousands and thousands of Lindens (the official SL currency). That comes out to like $12 in real money. Totally unreal.”

The Clinton campaign has been downplaying the significance of the protests.

“Gee, a fake world embracing a meaningless feel-good message like hope. Go figure,” one Clinton staffer told The Finite Times. “Hillary’s for the real world, chock full of real solutions to real problems. We don’t tolerate lag here.”

Still, many experts see it as just one more sign that Clinton’s chances of securing the nomination are fading fast.

“Hillary’s been positioning herself as queen of the make-believe world for the past several weeks, but if she can’t even win over hearts and minds there, what chance does she really have left?” asks one Washington insider.

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