Donnie Fowler has seen the future of American politics. Pull out your cellphone and you can see it as well.
As people increasingly tailor their leisure time to suit their lifestyles -- through blogs, MySpace, iPods, video on demand -- politicians and their promoters are facing the same problem as Hollywood and the makers of toothpaste: How do you sell your product to an increasingly fragmented audience?
To Fowler, a veteran Democratic strategist, the next big thing is the small screen on the cellphone in your purse or pocket. In just a few years, he said, the tiny device will allow you to access the Internet in all its vastness, as though you were seated in front of a computer.
"You'll not only be able to text people with messages, you'll be able to raise money, deliver video, audio, create viral organizing -- where one person sees something really interesting and it gets passed on and on," said Fowler, who recently started a company, Cherry Tree Mobile Media, to promote wireless communication as a campaign tool.
In technology, there is Moore's Law, the notion that computing power doubles about every 18 months. Politics has a rough equivalent, with every election bringing some heralded innovation that transforms the way campaigns are fought and contests are won.
The "blast fax" -- or ability to send a printed page to hundreds of recipients at a time -- was a big deal in the 1980s, before e-mail. Websites, once a campaign novelty, are ubiquitous today. Ditto candidate blogs.
"Most people thought we were out of our minds," said Joe Trippi, who midwifed the first online presidential campaign diary as a part of Howard Dean's 2004 race. "Now I can't think of a single congressional campaign that doesn't have one."
In the latest creative wrinkle, politicians are podcasting -- White House hopefuls Gen. Wesley K. Clark, John Edwards and Sen. Bill Frist are among those regularly offering their downloadable ruminations -- and turning up on Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and other photo- and video-sharing Internet sites.
Cable companies are pitching politics on demand after trial runs in Colorado's 2004 U.S. Senate race and the 2005 governor's race in New Jersey, which allowed voters to order free clips of the candidates discussing issues. (Even NJ Weedman, the gubernatorial hopeful of the Marijuana Party, got his say.)
Within a few years, it may be possible to target cable TV spots -- this ad intended for older voters, that one for renters -- the way customized mailers are now routed to selected homes.
