This afternoon the NYU Business and Law Schools are sponsoring a panel about the impact of technology on the current election cycle. The speakers on the panel include Scott Heiferman, representing meetup.com, and bloggers from the Dean and Clark campaigns, including Nicco Mele and Cam Barrett. If you were a Deaniac (was that ever considered an acceptable term?), you might want to come by, because there are rumors that Zephyr Teachout may make an appearance. The question that's been on our minds recently: if campaign blogs and meetups and Internet fundraising is so important, how come Howard Dean is sitting on his couch right now?
Price: Free (but get there early if you want a seat)
5pm, Rosenthal Auditorium, 11th Floor, Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South (between Laguardia and Thompson)
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Thompson shoutout!
if campaign blogs and meetups and Internet fundraising is so important, how come Howard Dean is sitting on his couch right now?
That is a question I've mulled over quite a bit too. Here's my attempt at an answer:
Blogs and internet fundraising *are* important to the political process. Dean's campaign showed how that CAN be used by a real candidate. Just because he didn't win doesn't mean they didn't have some sort of impact on how campaigns are run. Just look at how quickly Bush and Kerry scrambled to get blogs of their own running after Dean burst forth from the gates.
It's incorrect to think that blogs and the internet are the ONLY way to win a campaign (that's been proven quite false :^), rather they are an important part of the campaign. I predict that as the technology changes and more voters are 'net savvy the importance of "teh intarweb" in political campaigns will increase (if you think about it, most web savvy folks are under 35, and most voters are over 50. I'll try to find a source to support that theory.)
*steps down from soapbox* :^)