Free Republic

How Republicans won the Internet By Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini Sunday, January 24, 2010 Scott Brown's supporters became fans of the candidate on Facebook, where they commented on his status updates and uploaded their own photos. The Republican Senate hopeful took to Twitter, using the #masen hashtag to let his followers know how the race was going. His campaign powered its field operation through targeted online ads and Web-based spreadsheets, and raised $12 million from 157,000 individual donations in the last two weeks of the race. After he won last week, his team live-streamed the election-night party in Boston...

Would a divided GOP help Republicans in Massachusetts? On April 14, a contributor to conservative activist Patrick Ruffini’s blog TheNextRight.com argued that splitting the GOP into two parts would actually improve the party’s overall prospects. “The remedies to the GOP’s slide proposed thus far follow the same basic paradigm,” the contributor wrote. “The purists say that the GOP needs to purge the RINOs and create a clear distinction between the parties. The problem is that the American public sees the difference between the parties and is choosing Democrats. It turns out that the endless harping on pork and nomination battles...

It might not be as sexy as an item about an MSM anchor exposing his liberal bias. But if there's one thing I'd encourage conservatives to read, consider and act on in the blogosphere today, it is the Patrick Ruffni column "Information Gaps on the Right" at Hugh Hewitt's blog. Ruffini's fundamental point is the need for professionalized, conservative "feeder blogs," sites that "tee up" information for other blogs. Ruffini points to Think Progress as a model from the left of what this should be:

The netroots is reveling in Chicago, and the natural reaction is to ask, “Where’s our YearlyKos?” It’s a good question, but ultimately a short-sighted one from an historical perspective. Go back and re-read the TNR piece on the netroots from May. Especially this part: The Democratic leadership and the liberal intelligentsia seemed pathetic and exhausted, wedded to musty ideals of bipartisanship and decorousness. Meanwhile, what the netroots saw in the Republican Party, they largely admired. They saw a genuine mass movement built up over several decades. They saw a powerful message machine. And they saw a political elite bound together...

Wednesday, March 07, 2007Tiger Woods 2024 Posted by Patrick Ruffini  | Tiger Woods smiles at a news conference March 7, 2007 in Washington while announcing the new PGA tournament that he will host and play in the week of July 2-8. AT&T will be the title sponsor of the AT&T National, with a purse of six million dollars, that will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation. The tournament is scheduled to be played at Congressional Country Club in suburban Maryland.11:56 PM Oy: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After dominating the golf world for the last decade, is Tiger Woods considering a foray...