Candidates Blaze the Campaign Trail ... Online

Feb 9, 2007 — -- Blogs, podcast, Web video -- these and other Internet technologies have fast become must-have political tools for the 2008 presidential candidates -- and campaigns without them are scrambling to catch up.

With an increasing number of Americans saying they get their political news and information from the Internet, and broadband spreading across remote communities, a number of contenders are vying for voters and the White House on the Web.

Examples are popping up on the Internet faster than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Facebook profile.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., launched her first lady turned first candidate campaign with a Web video and a series of three live, online "conversations" with voters.

Log on to Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., Web site and you're one click from the political wunderkind's latest podcast: "Today I want to talk a little bit about the war in Iraq."

It's a sign that multiple White House wannabes are taking the Internet seriously.

Joe Trippi, campaign manager of then-Gov. Howard Dean's 2004 campaign, told ABC News that campaigns that do not harness the power of the Internet "are going to get crushed."

Widely credited for running a campaign fueled by online donations and Meetup.com volunteers, Trippi said, "we were out and the other campaigns were laughing at us." He explained that only three years ago, "using the Internet for political purposes was thought to be ridiculous."

Trippi credited a Republican -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- for raising several million with an Internet campaign.

"Now, all of the campaigns recognize the importance of the Internet," Trippi said. "No one's going to get a big head start or big lead this time around," he said, predicting Clinton's campaign will raise a record amount.

Trippi said another big difference between the 2004 campaign and the 2008 campaign is the availability of online video and the proliferation of blogs.

"These campaigns, the technology is right there waiting for them to use it," said Trippi.

Clinton Reconnects Online

Many of the campaigns appear to be taking a note from the Trippi campaign book, and are revving up major Internet operations.

"The awareness in the political world of the online community has evolved," said Peter Daou, Internet director for the Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. campaign.

"The Internet adds a whole new layer to the political campaign," said Daou, who blogs for Salon.com and Huffington Post, and ran the Sen. John Kerry 2004 campaign Web site.

Daou explains Clinton is trying to connect online with voters and points to the Web video and the series of live, online video chats she used to launch her campaign.

"The idea is to use the technology to allow people to get to know Sen. Clinton, and to allow her to get to know the people better," said Daou, who was tapped by Clinton, along with at least three other bloggers to lead the "Hillary for President" Web operation.

The Clinton campaign is even holding an online contest to be the "first guest post" on the Web site and Daou said they are still going through thousands of submissions to choose the fortunate first post.

Sen. Edwards Blog: Potential and Pitfalls

Clinton isn't the only Democratic candidate venturing into the blogosphere.

In a controversy that has largely played out online, Democratic presidential hopeful and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has found that having a campaign blog in this political environment can be tricky.

On Thursday, Edwards issued a formal statement reprimanding two of his newly hired campaign bloggers for controversial writings using crude and provocative language that they had posted onto their personal blogs before they were working for the Edwards presidential campaign.

The posts were uncovered by right-wing blogs, and it didn't take long for the "traditional" media to pick up on the story.

ABC News' Terry Moran reported on some of the more controversial writings of the two women, which he said could be construed as "hate speech." Link: http://blogs.abcnews.com/terrymoran/

Edwards distanced himself from the controversy in a statement released to the media. "The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwen's posts personally offended me...it's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people."

The Internet: A Political Game of 'Russian Roulette'

Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, said that the Edwards story is a cautionary tale for any politician about the double-edged sword of the Internet.

"Politicians are realizing that the Internet can do you great good and great harm," said Jones, who studies the impact of blogs on the media and on politicians.

"The culture of the Web is a very free-wheeling and even offensive one, and people can make crude comments that are really vulgar," Jones said, likening political blogs to a pistol attached to a Russian roulette wheel.

However, Jones said, "Political blogs could reach an awful lot of people that are otherwise unengaged."

More Americans Clicking for Political News

Will Web videos, blogs and podcasts bring more young people to the polls?

It's a question that researchers say is difficult to answer.

In 2004, with the Iraq War raging, young Americans ages 18 to 34 reduced the voting gap between themselves and older adults, but still didn't vote in anywhere near the numbers of older Americans.

Most people still get their political information from television and newspapers. However, a majority of Internet users now say they get political material from blogs, comedy sites like Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," government Web sites, candidate sites and alternative Web sites, according to a 2007 Pew poll.

"During the 2006 midterms, twice as many Americans said they used the Internet as their main source of political news and information, than did in the last midterm election," said Lee Rainie, director of the nonpartisan Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington, D.C.

Rainie found that 31 percent of Americans used the Internet during the 2006 campaign to discuss the races through e-mail and get political information. About 25 percent of all Americans say they went to the Internet for election information, according to a January 2007 Pew report.

Rainie said that the growth of the Internet in politics is tied in part to the spread of broadband connections in American homes.

But not everyone is eager to join the Internet revolution. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani's Web site currently lacks the bells and whistles of a blog or even Web video. However, his advisers said it is doing the trick of raising money and getting volunteers.

His campaign office said to "stay tuned" for a "state-of-the-art" Web site to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Political Video on the Web: Voters Can See For Themselves

Kevin McLaughlin, director of TV and Radio for Sen. John McCain's, R-Ariz., campaign said that part of the appeal of posting Web videos of political candidates on a Web site is so that voters can make up their own mind who they'd like to vote for, free of media filtration.

"Some people just want to figure it out for themselves and see the speeches and use the Internet blogs and the Web sites to make up their own minds," said McLaughlin.

He noted that the McCain campaign will soon be rolling out an updated version of their Web site that will be more "user-friendly and interactive."

The Republican campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney agrees, but said they are simultaneously trying to reach out to the online community and mainstream media on one Web site.

Kevin Madden, spokesperson for Romney, says the Romney campaign launched "Mitt TV" on the Web site, where reporters and voters alike can go and watch Romney's latest speeches.

"With a YouTube information age people are looking for video and audio," said Madden, noting that the campaign also put Romney's profile on Facebook.com in order to use the social-networking site as a grassroots organizing tool.

But live video can create political problems, too.

During the 2006 midterm campaign, former Sen. George Allen, R-Va., was caught at a campaign event calling an American man of Indian descent a "macaca," an obscure racial slur.

The man, who was volunteering for Allen's rival, taped the comments and the video quickly appeared on YouTube, where it rocketed to the top of the site's most-viewed lists.

Soon, the mainstream media got a hold of the video and the story, and Allen's campaign was finished -- as were his presidential aspirations.

The Modern Political Web Campaign: A Potential Civic Meeting Place?

Experts say that as the technology develops and grows, political candidates will have to adapt and catch up.

"Political consultants keep adding tabs to their binders of things the modern campaign must have," said Rainie.

Rainie said politicians have only begun to scratch the surface of what is possible.

"Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are very robust profiling tools -- something's going to take off there," Rainie predicted.

What about your favorite candidate sending you text messages with their latest policy announcements? Rainie said the technology is already there.

"And we're seeing some political activity in the virtual world and on Second Life," Rainie said about the popular virtual reality site.

"We're waiting to see if that's going to catch on and be a meaningful civic meeting place," he said.