2008 hurdle: turning clicks to knocks
The handful of people who have gathered on the patio of a Pasadena coffeehouse are either the answer, or the big question mark, in the upcoming presidential election.
They have come at the behest of Mike Barako, a Los Angeles special-ed teacher who has been following Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Last month, Barako launched a website through Obama's online campaign to build a local committee of active supporters. More than two dozen people promised to come out for this night's organizational meeting.
But only eight people have shown up, pointing up one of the challenges of the 2008 presidential campaigns' rush to the Internet. Building an online database of supporters and the curious is one thing. Spurring them to action is another.
"That's going to be the test
It's still early in the campaign cycle, but nearly all the major 2008 presidential candidates -- both announced and presumed -- are wrestling with the technology that has made such successes of MySpace, Facebook, MeetUp and other social networking sites.
Yet in their rush to the Web world, the campaigns have stumbled as much as they've succeeded. Two bloggers with embarrassing baggage quit former Sen. John Edwards' campaign under pressure over earlier comments bashing Catholics. And some say McCainSpace, a social networking site, emphasizes fundraising over network building.
Of the major declared and anticipated candidates, those who have moved most aggressively to the Internet are Obama; Edwards; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.); Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.); and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican.
Their sites let supporters create their own campaign-linked pages, find one another through regional search mechanisms, download posters and signup sheets, raise money and, in the case of Obama, print out voter registration forms.
According to staff lists maintained by George Washington University's Democracy in Action, many of the campaigns have turned to 2004 veterans to oversee their Web projects: Former Howard Dean staffers Matthew Gross and Joe Rospars work for Edwards and Obama, respectively; John F. Kerry advisor Peter Daou is with Clinton; former Bush-Cheney webmaster and Republican blogger Patrick Ruffini works for former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; and Mindy Finn, a Bush-Cheney 2004 veteran and former deputy campaign director of the Republican National Committee, works for Romney.
