An Online Revolution? I Don't See It

[ed_vadem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10736-2003Jul4.html


An Online Revolution? I Don't See It
By J.P. Gownder
Sunday, July 6, 2003; Page B01


BOSTON

Thanks to the Internet, the grass was looking quite a bit greener last week for the presidential campaign of the Green Mountain State's former governor, Howard Dean

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This article is pretty blunt about the limitations of the online movement. Some of his points are valid.

[papau]

1. Is "A" not as good as it could be, or is "A" better than "B"

The view that not as good as it could be means move on or do not vote is what made the election close enough for George to steal it via stopping a first and only true vote count in Florida.

The fellow more or less notes that name recognition is what he is discussing in current polls that do not show Dean with a nationwide lead.

So what. Looking back, what should Dean have done that would have put him in a better position than he now is? So far, has anyone done something that has put them into a better position than others because of that action?

Going forward, will the internet mean more than Broadcast TV time - of course not - but will it hurt, will it take away from other efforts?

I see this story as strawman knock down to put down Dean - but I no longer expect better from the Washington Post.

[LiberalLibra]

2. Maybe there isn't as big "An Online Revolution" as we would like but.....

....the "anyone but Bush" crowd in the offline world has changed from a drip, to a trickle, and is approaching flood levels now.

[MrJones]

3. This is silly.

If you had said 4 months ago that you could arrange for a Democratic candidate to make serious progress at getting money from upper middle class white men and would be able to generate over $3M from a basically untapped funding source, people would have kissed your feet. Now it's a problem?

Dean is making waves outside many of the traditional Democratic core groups, which is one reason the traditional party apparatchiks are down on him. But if he wins the nomination and can add that new support to the traditionally Democratic voters, it could be a massacre in November 2004. And I don't believe any of the "Dean can't get the black vote" nonsense. As long as Bill Clinton is willing to campaign for the nominee (and he's said some nice things about Dean), he'll do well in the black community.

[He loved Big Brother]

4. I agree.

Dean's supporters love his message enough to spread it to the black community. They're already discussing ways to efficiently do it. And they're mostly discussing it ONLINE.