Standing athwart history, yelling, “I’m not wearing any pants!”

“I used to categorize many of the advisers in my father’s campaign into one of two groups: those that “respected” the Internet and those who didn’t.” - Meghan McCain

When Meghan McCain launched “McCainBlogette.com” with a few of her friends, I thought it was a great idea. It was mainly non-political outside of the fact that her old man was running for President, and focused mainly on the behind the scenes of a Presidential campaign. It was different, and I had originally thought that if the McCain Campaign was going to follow suit (albeit more politically), we might have a shot.

Of course we know how that ended, which was the colossal FAIL that was the seventy or so paid Obama staffers working on the web as opposed to the FOUR working on the McCain campaign. Apparently this frustrated the future ex-Mrs. Brodigan.com as well, and she took to the cyber-pages of The Daily Beast to vent…

I wanted to ask some of the people who have been doing online work for the Republican party if they could somehow explain—or even admit—what has gone so wrong. But when I started calling around asking for people to comment, I discovered most did not want to talk to me. Instead, they told me that not having enough money was a huge factor in our loss—not our misuse of the Internet. Others were just plain angry, blaming the liberal media, and not the party’s shortcomings online. Of course, there is truth in some of this. But denial only amplifies the stereotypes about Republicans being disconnected…

Grassroots organizing and generating a cult-like momentum online isn’t unique to the Democratic party, either. During the primaries I remember thinking that Ron Paul’s organization was mind-blowing, and that his ideas as a candidate had obviously tapped into some movement on the Internet which drew even more people to his campaign. He is most noted for his online fundraising, at one point raising $4.2 million in one day. Anyone who went to any of the early primary debates can remember how many Ron Paul supporters showed up and how aggressive they were about their support for their candidate being heard.

And there was one quote from Republican online strategist Rob Kubasko (who granted, I’ve never heard of) that I found particularly amusing…

“So many Republicans now want to get on Twitter because they know it’s ‘cool, bur few are taking the time to really think about what they should use it for. When that happens, you get far too many ‘I’m sitting on the tarmac waiting for my plane to take off’ tweets. That’s when you just further become part of the joke and not the solution.”

Read the whole article, because it made some interesting points. Republicans being behind the tech curve isn’t particularly “news,” as I’m willing to bet nine out of ten people reading this blog feel the same way.

UPDATE: This isn’t going to end well…

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