Joe Trippi Talks to the London Times about how Blogs are going to be a Factor in 08

[illinoisprogressive]

Joe Trippi, the strategic guru who helped to drive Howard Dean to the brink of the Democratic nomination in 2004, is predicting that Barack Obama or another candidate will ride an even bigger wave across cyberspace and, perhaps, into the White House. “Clinton is running a scripted by-the-numbers campaign. Her problem is that because she is so strong, she will not take risks and that will encourage other candidates to be bolder and more open with the internet,” he told The Times.

Mr Trippi, who now works as an independent consultant, said there was evidence that the internet was evolving into the most powerful weapon in modern politics.

In 2000, he said, John McCain amazed observers by signing up 40,000 supporters online to his bid for the Republican nomination.

Then in 2004 Mr Dean got 650,000 supporters and $59 million (£30 million) in donations through the internet, where his candidacy won instant support among opponents of the Iraq war. It eventually fell apart after the Iowa caucuses.

“In 2008 we’re going to see a bigger earthquake. There will be candidates who get millions of people and hundreds of millions of dollars — this will affect the result of the election,” Mr Trippi said.

“When we started using the internet with Dean, everyone laughed at us. Now the proof of the pudding is that every single one of the candidates have announced they are running on the web.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1356186.ece