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Bush and Republicans Have Strong Voice On The Internet
By Matt Margolis | April 24, 2004
Many people think the powers of the Internet have only been harness by the Democrats. Well, they are wrong:
The GOP’s underreported e-campaign may lack the media razzle-dazzle of the Deaniac phenomenon, but it promises to leave no less a mark on the annals of political campaign history. It all comes down to a difference in style and strategy. For Howard Dean, the Internet was a way for the people to take back the Democratic Party. His e-campaign had all the creative fervor and chaos of Woodstock on servers, but it failed in the end to maintain its candidate’s early momentum. For George W. Bush, the Internet is a potent tactical weapon and his aides intend to wield it with party discipline and order to November 2 and beyond.
This article goes into some detail about the differences between how Democrats and Republicans utilize the Internet.
“If you step back and think about the past century of political activity there is a common pattern,” Ken Mehlman, Bush’s campaign manager, told Internet strategists at a recent gathering. “Whichever party or whichever candidate masters the latest political communications technology has tended to be the party or candidate that is successful.” Beginning in 1999 with just 17,000 e-mail addresses, the Republican Party now has more than 6 million e-mail addresses, triple the size of the Democratic National Committee’s database. The GOP has also signed up a half million interested volunteers on its Web site, who receive chatty notes from party leaders several times a week. The GOP Web site’s campaign loyalty program — called “Team Leader” — allows volunteers to collect points for writing a letter or soliciting a new party member that can be redeemed for coffee mugs or golf caps emblazoned with the party logo.
After getting into the efforts of the Dean campaign, the article goes into Kerry’s Internet efforts:
The John Kerry campaign is far more strait-laced than the Deaniacs, but it does emulate some elements of Dean’s sprawling e-campaign. Kerry staffers are currently talking to stalwarts of the Dean campaign about joining them. Kerry also just signed up Moveon.org activist Zack Exley, who is expected to bring the same brand of satirical humor to the Kerry Internet campaign that he brought to his anti-Republican Web site, GWBush.com.
Read the entire article. Between what the article reveals, and our efforts here at Blogs For Bush, it’s safe to say that Bush beats Kerry on the Internet any day.
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Cross posted at Blogs For Bush
Topics: Blogs For Bush |
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April 26th, 2004 at 7:27 am
Shhhhh…. don’t let the cat outta the bag. Let the donks keep thinking that the Internet is their thing. After all they think that by going to the “center” (less left than usual) was the cause of their downfall in 2002. Let them think that failure this November means that the Internet is far too much hype.