Candidates Face New Test: Winning Netroots Primary

Wall Street Journal ^ | 22 January 2007 | AMY SCHATZ

[shrinkermd]

Soon after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her bid for the presidency on the Internet, her campaign was boasting of its success in one of the most important new presidential battlefields: the Netroots Primary.

Within hours of launching her bid Saturday, her campaign Web site had attracted 10,000 messages of support, 2,200 submissions for its blog contest and had signed up people to its email list at the rate of 100 a minute, the campaign said.

Mrs. Clinton's embrace of the Internet shows how seriously candidates are taking the power of the online activist community. Bloggers and other Netroots activists didn't get Howard Dean elected in 2004 or Joseph Lieberman unelected in 2006, but they certainly played a big, vocal role in both races. Unlike other early primary contests, there is no set date to decide which candidate wins or loses the Netroots primary, but early support by the Internet community this year, at least for Democratic candidates, could help decide which candidate wins the party's nomination.

"It's a fact that in Democratic politics, [the Internet has] grown increasingly important and it's par for the course for candidates to pay attention and to communicate to this community," said Peter Daou, the Clinton campaign's Internet director and former head of blog outreach for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 presidential campaign.

Other Democrats are taking the Internet announcement route this year. Yesterday, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took the presidential plunge online in a video recorded in English and Spanish. Last week, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama announced his bid online. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards went to New Orleans for his official announcement, but his Internet site posted a preannouncement video and subsequently posted several more.

[shrinkermd]

The nutroots, antiwar moonbats are the driving force against the Iraq War and Dim hopefuls all suck up to them.

By the way, has anyone lately spotted Howard Dean or Ned Lamont?

[SueRae]

I want to know when the Democrat debates begin. I can't wait to see Hillary vs. Biden. Osamabama will be entertaining as well.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I want to know when the Democrat debates begin. I can't wait to see Hillary vs. Biden. Osamabama will be entertaining as well.

What I want is for radio to institute candidate debates. True debates, in which there is no moderator except the chess clock which divvies up the microphone time equally. Long debates, in which momentary gaffes are not significant because the debates are not pressurized. Debates in which there is no limit on the debaters' use of notes. And debates which are accomplished without bringing the candidates together in a disruption of the respective campaign schedules.

And there is no reason why an internet debate might not be conducted among the partisans of the various candidates - as in fact occurs on FR among Republican notables.