Poor Ron Paul
Oh, cry me a river. Jason Tanz at Wired News whines that the only candidate to master online campaigning was Ron Paul, who scaled back his campaign today but refused to endorse John McCain.
Perhaps Mr. Tanz was looking at the Republican candidates, because both Clinton and Obama (though I would argue that Obama’s got the better site) are using internet resources extensively and have been for over a year.
Realistically there is no way a campaign will be conducted on the Internet alone, or through the Internet and debates, because of the nature of the Internet itself. People have a fundamental understanding that someone can say or do one thing online and be someone else entirely in a face-to-face meeting. This is why the leading candidates are out on the campaign trail. It’s why they’re giving stump speeches and shaking hands.
The internet is great for networking and is probably the most valuable tool candidates have for communicating to their support base, but it cannot substitute or even be the primary base for a Presidential campaign.
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