Increase Your Candidacy 2 to 4 Inches In LENGTH and MASS

New at Reason: Howard Dean's presidential spampaign has gained the former Green Mountain governor buzz and distribution. But will it save him when he puts swiss cheese on a Pat's cheesesteak? Jeff Taylor has his doubts.

Comments

[Tommy_Grand]

"...the Elder Bush's campaign against Bill Clinton, a lost cause if there ever was one."

So GHWB had no chance in 1992? I remember it being pretty close in the poll and on election day.

[Sean]

Dean's cybercampaign may yet come around full circle to bite him in the ass. Recently I've begun to notice more and more grumblings about him in the same left-circles that make up his new base. One small example:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/antiwar/1533557.html

This seems to break folks up into groups, candidate who can win (maybe Dean, maybe Kerry) v. candidate that doesn't eat animals (Kucinich). We'll have to wait and see if this type of backlash will have a broad effect, but all is not rosey in the Dean flash mob sect.

As for Kerry's little cheesesteak faux pas, his biggest mistake was going to Pat's. Geno's is far better.

[Mark Borok]

"Maybe people really want to hike the minimum wage, repeal President Bush's modest tax cuts, bail out crumbling, mismanaged municipalities, and keep shoveling money into Social Security. You never know."

It's interesting that this passage says nothing about Dean's anti-war stance, a position with which many libertarians agree but which the public at large doesn't hold with.

[Brady]

I think Dean's use of technology has been an interesting model for a low-cost campaign that spurs grassroots activism. While it is new territory and the effectiveness when it comes to the voting booth is unknown at this point, I would argue that it is blazing a trail for the future. I think that we should observe this model closely and learn from it, since it has the possibility to negate, at least some, of the campaign budget differences.

I've been keeping my eye on Dean's use of drupal, and political action sites such as moveon.org. Bar the fact that blogging has caught on in the libertarian circles, I think that we are lagging behind the liberal crowd in using web technologies to our advantage. I don't see it as an all out replacement for old tried and true methods, but as a supplement.

Sure, the target market of an activist website is different than old media. I would imagine they are younger and more educated (such is the demographics for net users). Younger, to me, means that there is still a chance in swaying their political philosophies. Until we begin using the technologies to our advantages, we will lose plenty of possible supporters to the innovative liberals.

Don't let the messages being broadcasted by the technical mediums they are using cloud the effectiveness of the technology itself.

[david f]

my bro-in-law is a higher up on the dean campaign, and it appears as though their belief that this younger crowd may balance out the older (rural/conservative) crowd that gets out and rocks the vote. and i get emails frequently from that camp, urging me to pass on tidbits (often the tidbits are urban legends about bush) of info to the rest of the flock.

needless to say, he and i don't discuss politics.

jeff -- your email doesn't work... (@carolina.rr.com)

and Sean that link above to the dean bashing article is interesting, thanks! doesn't that author's vision of what a progressive candidate should do give you the heebiejeebies? shudder. the AIPAC criticism has surfaced before. don't think dean will go against one of the best organized, powerful lobbies.

cheers,
drf

[Maroney Terry]

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DATE: 05/21/2004 06:12:09
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