Dean's Blog Builds Support Despite A Lack Of Personal Input
from the building-community dept
Mark Glaser has written (what even he admits) is the 4,341st story on Howard Dean and his use of the internet, though this one takes a different angle. He wonders why, with all the hype about how much Dean gets the internet how come we actually see very little of Dean on the internet. There's an official campaign blog, but that's run by his staffers. He did (to much fanfare) blog briefly on Prof. Lessig's blog, but didn't say very much. So, while many people and reporters are talking about Dean's blogging ways... it turns out he really isn't blogging very much at all. In fact, there are other politicians who seem to have embraced blogging with much more gusto. Of course, as the article points out, there's more to it than that, and, no matter what reporters and political pundits have been saying, it seems that the real impact of Dean's technologically enhanced campaign staff isn't so much the fact that "Dean blogs", but that "Dean is making it easier for everyone to participate in the process". Many people seem to feel locked out of the political process, as it seems to take place on some separate level that "normal people" will never reach. What Dean's campaign staff has done (whether on purpose or accidentally) is use technology to open up the process, and make "normal people" feel like their voices are being heard. That alone, is an impressive accomplishment.
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Howard Dean, Webmaster.
Hart is an excellent blogger. He's articulate, inspiring, focused, a skilled writer. If Dean had Hart's blogging chops, his momentum would be twice what it is today. For all the skill of Dean's campaign, they've fumbled a huge opportunity for their candidate to connect with voters via personal blogging, and any of the other Democratic hopefuls would be wise to pick it up. It's too bad they're so afraid of being accused of copying Dean that they're willing to go down with the ship rather than use the political techniques of the 21st century.
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