Sen. Clinton adds new twist to Web campaigns

[Herman Munster]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16547430.htm

Sen. Hillary Clinton signaled that hers would be an Internet-savvy presidential campaign by announcing her candidacy with a video posted on her Web site and e-mails to supporters. Throughout the week, she has been hosting live video chats. And on Thursday, Clinton held her first townhall meeting in cyberspace.

Clinton, a New York Democrat, used the Yahoo Answers service to ask voters: ``Based on your own family's experience, what do you think we should do to improve health care in America?''

By 5 p.m., Clinton had gotten more than 33,000 answers, making her question the second-most popular in the history of Yahoo Answers. Clinton is trumped by Oprah, who received 37,000 answers to the question: ``If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?''

Clinton's moves put her in the company of a cadre of politicians and interest groups who have successfully harnessed the power of the Internet to achieve political goals. In 1998 Jesse Ventura effectively used e-mail; in 2000 Sen. John McCain taught his colleagues a lesson in online fundraising; in 2002 MoveOn.org showed how the Internet could be used to mobilize voters; and Howard Dean showed how it could be used to connect with them.

`This is the great era of experimentation of politics and the Internet,'' said Lee Rainie, founding director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

[Boo Boo]

1. I don't see how Hillary's "town hall" meeting in cyberspace is all that

different from Bush's carefully screened dog and pony shows---the ones he did during his Social Security privatization push, for instance. She is able to have her staff screen the questions, and only answer the ones she chooses. That's a lot different from having an actual town hall meeting where someone can walk up to the microphone, ask you a question that's politically tough to deal with, and then stand there and wait for an answer while everybody else in the room watches.

Here are three questions that Steve Clemons (www.thewashingtonnote.com) submitted to Hillary's staff during the Web chat:

1. Who would she appoint to the United Nations as our Ambassador? or what kind of person would she select to represent American interests at the UN? Her fellow Senator from New York Chuck Schumer was just fine with John Bolton? Would she be?

2. Would she be the kind of President who gave her staff license to challenge her? to force consideration of every last policy option? to put bad news before good news? Or does she like her team to validate her views and not challenge her? How would she deal with Brent Scowcroft-style or Lawrence Wilkerson-style public commentary differently than President Bush has?

3. What does she think about Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and their political leadership. Should we be engineering regime change and democractic political reform in these states as a high priority? or would she opt for stability in the near to mid term and reform/democratization later?

Care to guess which question she chose to answer? That's right, folks, Hillary wants her staff to challenge her. Wow, what a breath of fresh air! It's a new day in America!

Not.