Why Democrats Rule the Web

[babylonsister]

Why Democrats Rule the Web
Thursday, Apr. 17, 2008
By MICHAEL SCHERER, JAY NEWTON-SMALL


You know the drill. As election day approaches, glossy pamphlets clog your mailbox. Annoying prerecorded calls jam your answering machine. Nasty attack ads disturb your prime-time TV viewing. You are bombarded at every turn, and you take it all in, with only one responsibility in mind: remember to vote.

That's the way it used to be for Tom and Mary Bashore, a retired printer and an accounting assistant from Ephrata, Pa. But at some point in January, they stopped watching and started participating. Mary went on their home computer and found Barack Obama's website, where the couple created a personal Web page to connect with other Obama supporters in the area. A group of about 100 began meeting offline in Lancaster, assigning themselves tasks throughout the county with guidance from the campaign website.

"People were just getting together on their own," remembers Tom, 60, a brown-eyed man with a cropped mustache. "I guess you could call it grass roots." Like thousands of others, Tom downloaded phone lists so he could cold-call potential supporters in the area. Mary spent hours typing names and addresses into Obama's national database. The first paid operatives finally arrived in the area weeks later, only to find a virtually organized Obama machine already up and running. When the campaign held its first statewide training sessions in March, some 2,000 people turned up.

It has gone on like this all year for Obama as his campaign deftly exploits the biggest technological shift in national politics since the rise of television. For millions of Americans, the Internet has turned presidential politics into a fully interactive event, a chance to give money with mouse clicks and to volunteer virtually from miles away. And the Democrats have used these tools to produce historic results. In February alone Hillary Clinton was able to attract 200,000 new donors, most of them online, rescuing her campaign from the brink of bankruptcy. Obama has amassed an army of 750,000 supporters who have signed on to his website and participated in 30,000 offline events. Obama's online fund-raising eclipsed the $100 million mark in the first three months of the year, and his YouTube videos have been viewed 37 million times, a figure that would make any television executive weep. "It is a seismic change," says Michael Malbin, the executive direc tor of the Campaign Finance Institute. "This year's donors are not just givers. They are doers."

And that could spell trouble for John McCain come November. Though both Democrats have shown the ability to raise bigmoney online, McCain has been struggling to catch Internet fever. While his rivals rake in bundles of cash in small-dollar checks, McCain makes the rounds of hotel ballrooms, charming wealthy donors with traditional chicken dinners and fruit-platter mixers. In March he attended 26 fund raisers in 24 cities, raising about $15 million, with roughly one-third of it coming from the Web. Obama attended just six events in the same period, yet his campaign raised three times as much, 2 mostly online.

more...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1731879,00.html

[midnight]

1. It sounds like the Democratic party is the pary of

effieciency, technology and increadable smarts....So no matter what happens-please vote for a Democratic president this November election cycle.

[starroute]

6. It didn't used to be that way

The right got a jump on use of computers in the 70's -- computerized mailing lists were behind the whole direct-mail fundraising thing that not only brought in money but also spread the GOP wedge issues.

And right-wing blogs and Drudge were ahead of the left in 2004.

But things have changed in a big way since then. I'm not sure why. It's an interesting question, but it doesn't just boil down to who's smarter.

[eridani]

7. I'd say the wingers were ahead in 1998

When MoveOn started, that began the movement in the other direction.

[mwb970]

10. Is it related to the inability of the right to "do" or "get" humor?

They also can't seem to do documentaries. Is it because they are uncreative and afraid of imagination? Or are they just thick and stupid? Who knows? They sure have the AM-radio screeching-outrage talking-points dittohead thing down pat, but that's about it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. It's nothing short of amazing. Obama has taken the Dean strategy

into the stratosphere. Makes me proud to be a Democrat. Recommended.

[caledesi]

5. I agree! NT

[kerrybama08]

3. Very trueq

It is in cable TV, owned by Plutocrat Republicans, where GOP'ers have an edge.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. NBC's Chuck Todd, et.al.: "The left-wing blogosphere is MUCH more powerful than what you see on the

NBC's Chuck Todd is one of the more astute political observers out there (we thought this before he penned this morning's post, below).

Curious of what the bitterness and anger could look like if Obama is somehow denied the Democratic nomination? Check out the reaction from the ObamaNation over Wednesday’s debate. To put it simply, ABC was under siege yesterday. This may only be a taste of how the ObamaNation would react to a Clinton nomination. If MoveOn is motivated to do a petition campaign against the media over a debate, imagine what Clinton delegates and undecided superdelegates would face this summer if there is doubt. And as the Politico’s Ben Smith pointed out yesterday, it’s also what the GOP would face in the general election, especially if Obama is nominee. The level of devotion among Obama's supporters rivals what Bush had with his flock in 2004. The left-wing blogosphere is MUCH more powerful than what you see on the right this cycle and it reminds us of the advantage Bush had in '04. While we all know about that so-called right-wing voice machine, don’t forget that there is now a left-wing noise machine (on the internet) as well. And it has found its voice.

Here's what Ben Smith had to say:

The ABC debate, according to the network, got 10.7 million viewers.

It also triggered the most furious outrage I've seen from the huge, and growing, Obama activist base, which in this case merged with the liberal Netroots -- which aren't always on the same page -- to generate a volume of complaints about the first 45-minutes of questioning that are pretty impossible to miss.

It's just a small glimpse, I think, of the level of heat the media is going to take in the general election, and John McCain doesn't seem to have any equivalent.

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Republicans have an amazing ability to turn defeat into victory (and Democrats, the opposite), and they've been playing the media refs for going on 3 decades now. But I've been telling people for a while that the right-wing blogosphere is next to non-existent in power as compared to the left. In a future post, I'll try to analyze why this is. But for now, suffice it to say, there's a reason we bloggers do what we do. You, and we, together make up a rather relevant and powerful force in Democratic, and overall US, politics. Be proud. Be vigilant. And be active. It matters.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/04/nbcs-chuck-todd-etal.html

[creeksneakers2]

8. Power is now in the hands of the masses

Everything is changing.

[Joanne98]

9. Thankyou Howard Dean.