Blogland's Man Of The People

from the creating-a-candidate dept

Back in 2000, there were a bunch of stories about how it was the first time the internet played a strong role in a presidential election. You would think that candidates would have learned that that was a trend that was only going to increase. The story of presidential candidate Howard Dean embracing the internet has been covered before, but Salon is running a much more in-depth article talking about how this underdog candidate's campaign staff (and it does sound like it's his staff's doing) came to realize the power of the internet. What's most interesting to me is how much of a surprise this whole thing has been to "political pundits". It wasn't long ago that everyone was saying Dean was an underdog with zero chance of getting the Democratic nomination, since he lacked the fundraising power. Now, suddenly, you hear stories all the time about the attention Dean is getting. It appears that politicians (and political pundits) may be learning that people online actually do have some influence. Whatever his politics are (and, I don't know enough about any of the candidates' platforms at this point), it's certainly fascinating to see how the internet has had a real impact on a Presidential campaign.