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Obama catches fire on Facebook

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Internet has provided U.S. Sen. Barack Obama a rapid recruiting platform for the Illinois Democrat's fledgling presidential campaign.

A site on the popular Web destination Facebook called "One Million Strong for Barack" has signed up nearly 300,000 members in the month since it was launched, The Washington Post said Saturday.

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The site wasn't even created by the Obama campaign, the newspaper said. It was launched basically on a whim by a 26-year-old employee at the University of Missouri. Others have followed suit; there are more than 500 Obama support groups now on Facebook alone.

While the online groups provide Obama and other candidates with some grassroots organizing and a level of public buzz, the Post pointed out that Howard Dean thrived on the Internet in 2004 but couldn't translate the cyberspace support into the kind of boots-on-the-ground presence required to win in early primary states.

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