Campaign.org

An article on the rise of Internet politics:

“What really mixes this race up is the Internet. It has the potential to make the conventions look like something from the horse and buggy days. The traditional press corps, of which I am a member, begins to look very out of touch. The Internet has power to change elections. ”

“Bloggers are critical, but they do not wield as much power as they would like. What is changing the election is the nature of the content shift from newspapers, radio and television to the Internet. ”

“More and more people are turning to the Internet to satisfy their political curiosity. ”

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From the LA Times:
An article on the power of new media to differentiate candidate.

“ALL the fizz aside, new media have the capacity to create distinctions with a difference.

National politics is one of the places where that may be occurring, and that’s a possibility to which, in Mrs. Willy Loman’s unforgettable words, “attention must be paid,” especially by the country’s news media.”

“What’s really interesting about this particular moment in our nation’s electoral life is that neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidates currently generating much of the interest and enthusiasm have formally declared. Both, in fact, have made themselves forces to be reckoned with by standing outside the formalized political process and communicating with voters through new and alternative media rather than traditional political journalism”

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From The Wall Street Journal:
An article on the talent and technology behind Bararck Obama’s Internet campaign effort.

 ”Now social networking is shaping up as a potent new force in the 2008 presidential campaign. Candidates are betting that the sites — existing commercial ones or their own newly created ones, like Mr. Hughes’s My.BarackObama.com will expand their power to find and mobilize supporters, particularly elusive young voters who go to the polls at much lower rates than their elders.”

“Several candidates have taken the step of actively developing their own social networks — Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards and, to a lesser extent, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Sen. McCain of Arizona — in hopes of sparking online support that can be translated into real-world donations and volunteerism. McCainSpace allows people to create home pages inside Mr. McCain’s Web site so they can recruit other people for his team and raise money. In February, Mr. McCain’s Web site attracted some 226,000 unique visitors, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, making it the most viewed Republican campaign site. But that still lagged far behind Mr. Obama, the Democratic leader, who logged 773,000 unique visitors.”

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