Winning and the Internet

By Jerome Armstrong

Blogland's man of the people is on Salon, with quite a few quotes by a few of the Dean activists on the net.

The early on reference to Trippi I made is actually from June of 2002 (in December was when Trippi googled it). Stepping into the how they can win role for a moment, the gist of the point I made was that for Dean (the outsider candidate) to win, he'd have to takeover the frontrunner status before the voting began: Dean's best bet is to win Iowa and New Hampshire, become the front-runner, and look inevitable...

Obvious, but how does it happen?

What Trippi will tell you that is unique about this Presidential primary, is that it's the first modern campaign in which the insurgent (Dean) has become named by the media prior to the frontrunner becoming established in the CW. There is no frontrunner in this Democratic primary. So what happens when the insurgent all of a sudden leads all comers in fundraising?

Dean's becoming the de facto frontrunner. Iowa, good news on that front, and New Hampshire will need to provide the confirmation.

It's the organizing tool of the internet which has opened up for this scenario to happen:

If you're a skeptical journalist, you might be tempted to ask whether this attitude is genuine; is there something calculated about the nonchalance? Does Trippi pay attention to what bloggers say because he really cares, or because he knows -- and he knew before anyone else -- that they could be a key to electoral victory? "He obviously knew what they could do," says MyDD's Armstrong. "He was able to see early on that the Internet could be what he calls the 'perfect storm of democracy,' where the Net activism connects with the right candidate at just the right time."

Your very own kos gets the closing statement about what it all means:

And there may even be some sound political theory to support Trippi's use of the Web. Markos Zuniga, who runs Daily Kos, one of Trippi's favorite political blogs, says: "Traditionally the Democratic Party has been beholden to special interests. For the Democrats it's been labor unions and environmental organizations. I have nothing against those interests, but the problem is that the rank and file of the party have never been represented -- it's the people with money that get a say. What the blogosphere does is create this online community where people from all walks of life can support the party, and if the party plays its cards right, it can have these people rallying around the party instead of around their own special interest. They could be more like Republicans, who've had all this success by rallying around their party."

Posted July 03, 2003 12:32 AM