Online politics 2.0: Candidates using Internet to turn buzz into votes

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: Online politics 2.0: Candidates using Internet to turn buzz into votes
By John King
CNN Senior National Correspondent



....While Howard Dean proved the potential of Internet fund-raising in the 2004 presidential race, he was ultimately unable to translate all the online buzz and money into enough votes -- a lesson to the next wave of campaigns using the Internet as an organizational and fund-raising tool.

(Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman John) Walsh says the lesson is to integrate so called "new media" with traditional campaign operations, something he says the Patrick campaign did effectively.

"Sometimes campaign say, 'I want a cool Web site. I want to do a blast email. Oh, I want to raise $50 million online like Howard Dean,'" Walsh told CNN in a recent interview. "But the point of the matter is that if you are trying to do that and you are maximizing your success on that, you're leaving a huge amount on the table."

To visit Sen. Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in downtown Chicago is to get a firsthand look at how one presidential campaign hopes to build on the lessons of 2004 and 2006.

Joe Rospars is a Dean campaign veteran who now oversees the Obama new media effort -- and he says one lesson -- echoing Walsh -- is to make sure Internet efforts compliment, and don't compete, with other campaign operations.

The overwhelming focus for Internet groups is on organizing and bringing voters to the polls. Campaigns do this in part by creating tools and software applications that supporters can download to help their efforts....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/internet.campaigns/index.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. "Candidates using Internet to turn buzz into votes." That sounds painful.

Is this a voluntary program?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. LOL!