Politics Faces Sweeping Change Via the Web

The New York Times published a piece that acknowledged the many ways the web is changing politics.

However, the power of the offline consultants over this article is still clear in quotes such as this one:

And while the Internet is efficient at reaching supporters, who tend to visit and linger at political sites, it has proved to be much less effective at swaying voters who are not interested in politics. "The holy grail that everybody is looking for right now is how can you use the Internet for persuasion," Mr. Armstrong, the Warner campaign Internet adviser, said.

I would argue that the persuasive power of the web has been used in many instances, especially where the Man (or woman), Machine, Message and Moment have come together to generate a fundraising windfall.

Politics for the iPod Generation

Politics is not just about words and ideas. For an upcoming generation that takes its music seriously, politics is also about the sounds.

Pat LaMarche, running for Governor in Maine, understands the importance of inviting the younger generation into her campaign. A local musician has agreed to hold a free concert that will support the Maine Clean Elections Fund, with some of those $5 Clean Elections checks possibly going toward the 2,500 $5 checks Pat will need to qualify as a Clean Elections candidate.

To make sure as many young people come to this concert as possible, Pat has created a page on her website that features not only pictures of the singer, Dave Wooley, but also snippets of his songs on an iPod-like music player.

It's not clear how effective this will be in generating fans at the concert or $5 checks for the Clean Elections Fund, but her strategy certainly gives younger supporters a reason to visit her website and send the URL to their friends.

WikiPolitics on Capitol Hill

The Washington Post reports that the ability to anonymously revise entries in the online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia has proved too tempting for partisans on Capitol Hill. Wikipedia has thrived as a community-based resource that has almost a million entries in English and millions in 119 other languages, from Norwegian to Nahuatl. It's too bad that political partisans in the United States don't have more restraint and cannot stop themselves from casting aspersions on opponents in their Wikipedia entries.

Bloggers Keep MSM's Feet to the Fire

The Washington Post Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, tried to tell the world that the Abramoff pay-to-play scandal was a bipartisan scandal. Unfortunately, she was caught repeating GOP talking points and refused to acknowledge that she had her facts wrong.

According to Georgia10, a blogger over at DailyKos, the Washington Post received over 700 messages trying to correct the error. Rather than face the inquiries, the blog was shut down. Washington Post Executive Editor Jim Brady lamented that although "[t]ransparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture," his paper disabled the reader comments feature on its blog "after several comments containing personal attacks, profanity and hate speech were posted."

Later, the Post put 198 of the comments back up, saying it had "blocked" or "removed" others that were profane.

Unfortunately for Ms. Howell and the Post, alert bloggers had saved the messages before the blog was taken down. Still other bloggers noticed that when the Washington Post "restored" 198 of the deleted messages, at least 42 messages had been taken out. The fascinating thing is that almost none of the 42 messages the Washington Post removed contained profanity. Read them over and decide for yourself whether profanity was the issue.

Bloggers claim the 42 deleted messages contain mainly serious, well-researched and well-reasoned queries as to why Ms. Howell was not doing her job as an independent journalist. The Post was finally forced to admit that Howell had been wrong about the Abramoff scandal being bi-partisan.

This episode illustrates three things:

1. Get your facts straight.


2. When you make an error, get a correction out there right away.


3. Don't try to play "hide the evidence." It is too easy to find things on the Internet.

Evaluating Political Websites

Evaluating political websites for effectiveness is now being done routinely. The current Canadian election season was just evaluated by Hillwatch, an Ottawa-based company. Their report finds that many of the campaign sites are merely static billboards that have not fully utilized the interactivity possible on the web.

Sounds like a good way to summarize the campaign websites found in the U.S. during 2004. Hopefully we all can do better in the 2006 campaign season!

Jib Jab and the Humor Quotient

Humor has always been a good way to get a message across. It allows you to simplify your message and reach people who might not listen if all you want to do is send facts and figures their way.

Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the owners and creators of JibJab.com, have been especially good at finding humor in politics. Their animated cartoon, "This Land," which lampooned both Bush and Kerry, was one of the hits of the 2004 campaign season.

Now they have released their latest take on the political scene, "2-0-5," which is a two minute spoof on the travails of President Bush during 2005. It is well worth the ad and two minutes of your time.

Despite their success, the Spiridellis brothers are still in search of revenue, selling "preroll video" ads (short ads for Ford cars, for example) that play before each online viewing of its animated productions. They took eight weeks to do "This Land," and refuse to compromise on the quality or integrity of their messages, so they are both still living in rental apartments.

How will these humorous messages affect Campaign 2006? Given the deep passion on all sides of the issues these days, and the deadly serious way many of us approach the current political scene, humor will probably serve as a leavening and galvanizing tool for campaign strategists who know how to utilize it effectively.

Until then, happy holidays, everyone!

Kazzoom it!

There is always some new development on the World Wide Web, but a new search engine seems far-fetched, given the popularity and usability of Google.

However, a new "turbo-charged" search engine called Kazzoom has arrived which markets itself as being able to search beneath the surface of the web to get into archives and places that Yahoo and Google might not find.

I did a search on my own name and found the usual stuff I see if I do a Google search, but then I also saw a few things I had never seen: Danish website selling Winning Campaigns Online, an old piece I had written in 2000 for Schwabonline, and copies of my articles that had been posted on websites I never heard of.

Overall, the usability of Google still has me won over, but at least I know that there is a new tool out there in case I want even more on a topic.