The Internet and Political Campaigns

Last Sunday, “CBS News Sunday Morning” broadcast my report on the Internet’s effect on this year’s presidential elections. The story described such inventions as blogs (Web logs, or journals), meetups (local special-interest groups, held at bars or restaurants, organized at Meetup.com), and MoveOn.org (a liberal political-action group that tries to merge thousands of small contributions into large, visible actions).

Howard Dean’s campaign is credited with first harnessing these new tools. But the Internet tactics pioneered by his team were quickly adopted by other candidates — in both parties. Republican meetups are now the fastest-growing category, according to Meetup.com, and there’s now a conservative answer to MoveOn.org called RightMarch.com.

On Feb. 9, I interviewed Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign manager, but we could use only a few snippets of his interview on the air. Regardless of your political persuasion, I hope you’ll find these longer excerpts thought-provoking; after all, no matter which way you vote, these ideas have become a permanent page in the playbook of presidential campaigning.

David Pogue: How receptive were people to your Internet ideas?

Joe Trippi: Well, the other campaigns laughed at us. I mean, were the bar scene out of “Star Wars” — that’s what they thought a meetup was. “Why is Trippi wasting his time talking to obscure bloggers on the Net?” They tried to use the word “blogger” to scare people. “It’s a weird, freaky thing!” No, it’s a Web log. It’s a journal. Nothin’ weird about it.

Now, this is it. This is the tip of the iceberg -- this is the beginning. This is like the Nixon-Kennedy debate, when television changed everything. When we see how powerfully the Internet affects our politics, 10, 20 years from now, this’ll be the moment it started.

David Pogue: How is the character of the Internet is different from television and the traditional media?

JT: Television and print media are one way. Even the TV ads are, “Hey, look at me, aren’t I great? If you like me, maybe you’ll send money.”

The Internet is two-way communication between the candidate and the supporters. And it’s multi-way. The supporters can talk to each other. They can all talk to the candidate in the campaign. And so there’s an ownership of the campaign that happens. And in real involvement, a totally different level — a networking that people do among their friends.

I actually think the Net is the one tool that we need for the American people to get involved and actually change Washington again. I mean, television’s not going to do that. The L.A. Times and the New York Times and Chicago Tribune aren’t going to do that. No offense to them, it’s just a one-way thing. There’s no way for the American people grab onto that and say, “Yeah, I’m going to make change.” There’s only one medium in the world that can change this country, let all these Americans come together and they get the change they want. That’s the Internet.

DP: But when you let people carry on the campaign on their own with meetups, and you give people the power to type up their own blogs, aren’t you giving away control? Aren’t you allowing people to come up with their versions of the message that you might not approve of?

JT: What, you mean actually letting American people get involved and decide things? Boy, that’s a horrible, horrible thing! (chuckles)

I’m sorry. No, I don’t think that’s a problem.

I think it’s the LACK of doing that for 40 years that’s been the problem. We don’t have a system that really lets the American people in on the decisions and in on influencing decisions, and in on the debate.

To create real change, you need about two, three million Americans to say, “Here’s 100 bucks.” It’s not a lot, $100. Two million, three million Americans do that, that’s $300 million.

Now whoever’s in power at the time, or the interests that are in power, have a problem. ‘Cause suddenly the American people have as much power as they do — more. And that, I think, is what is going on here. This wasn’t about Howard Dean. It’s about a medium now that, for the first time, puts really empowering tools in the hands of average Americans in a way that no other medium, TV, print, can do. DP: But this is such a polarized campaign. Why couldn’t I, as a Dean hater, take those same tools and go out and start saying terrible things on the Dean for America blog?

JT: Oh, they do that. And they say they’re a Dean supporter. They get on there and trash me, or trash the governor. But everybody on a blog knows what a troll is. A troll is somebody who’s masquerading and trying to get you to feel ill about the governor, or John Kerry, or Clark. But that’s not just germane to the Internet. You got three people show up to go walking on a volunteer basis for John Kerry. One of ‘em turns out to be a guy who’s not really for John Kerry. He goes to all those doors and acts sort of obstinate and sort of mean, and loses votes for John Kerry. They don’t call him a troll. There’s no word for it in the old politics. But these are just the problems of any campaign.

DP: Which parts of your Internet strategy worked, and which things flopped?

JT: Well, cellphone text messaging didn’t work the way we had hoped. We really went after that hard. It went, but just didn’t really do anything.

Meetup, and the get-local tools on the Web site, where people could meet locally to do things, were amazing. I mean, absolutely amazing. We started out with 400 people on Meetup. We’re around 200,000 people today, meeting on the first Wednesday of every month for Howard Dean.

And not just for us. It’s a phenomenon now that’s carried into the other campaigns. Thousands and thousands of people, probably collectively, 300 or 400,000 Americans are meeting around the country on a given day for their candidate.

We were doing so many things that no one’s ever done before. To say that we knew exactly what was gonna happen, would be a lie. We didn’t. We tried everything to get people involved. Some worked, some didn’t. But in the end, we raised more money from more small-donation people than any campaign probably in the history of the country. I’m telling you, this is just the beginning of real empowerment of people. And the Internet is going to be the integral way that it happens.

DP: And yet Dean is no longer the front-runner. You’re no longer with his campaign. MoveOn’s effort to stop us from going to war in Iraq didn’t work. Is this Internet business, to some degree, just a media novelty?

JT: Look, this system that’s currently there is busted. I mean it’s broke, it’s rotted, it’s just rusted up. You know, let’s go do a bunch of dinners, $2,000 [a plate], let’s buy a bunch of television. This is what the system was and is. Well look, there’s a lot of power in that system. And it’s been built up for 40 years.

To think that in 13 months you’re going to overthrow it — change the whole thing, turn it upside down — that’s not reality. That’s where the press is wrong in the way they covered this thing.

These are the initial steps of really changing a system that’s broken. And look at what’s happened: $45 million was raised not from special interests, not from a lot of people getting $2,000 checks, but from people giving $25 and $50 checks.

This isn’t going anywhere but up. More people are going to join. More people are going to get involved. The American people really do want to do something in the common good. I think the biggest problem this country has right now is getting over the individuals’ disbelief that they can make a difference. The system has beaten it out of people. ”You can’t make a difference.”

Well, you can. And the Dean campaign proved that. That individuals working together can make a difference. And the more individuals in this country understand that, the more of them who join something, use the Net and its tools to get real power within the community, and come together as a powerful force, they will change this country for the better.

And that’s what being an American really is all about. You’re just seeing the beginning.

DP: Can you tell us some stories about individuals that you encountered in this campaign?

JT: There’s so many things that happened. We had a woman in Penn State who sent out an e-mail saying, “I sold my bike for democracy.” And it was this really moving e-mail about how she’d sold her bike for, I think, $79, and had sent Howard Dean the money. That went all around the Net. And still, when I left, we were still getting e-mails from people saying, “I sold my bike for democracy.”

Now, I don’t believe that all of them were selling their bikes. But it was cool that they got that that’s what this was about, our democracy.

There’s an 89-year-old guy from Sonora, California, who called the office one day in Burlington and said, “You know, I’m 89 years old. I’d been reading the obituaries every morning when I woke up, ‘cause I was ready to . . . check out. Well, I heard Howard Dean on the radio, and I’m staying and fighting.”

And he called back every week or two. “I bought a computer for $500. I’m reading the blog.” He called back: “I’ve joined Meetup.” Called back a week later: “I’m a Meetup host.” The guy is becoming the leader of the whole local Meetup community around Howard Dean in Sonora, California — an 89-year-old guy who, three or four weeks earlier, had been reading the obituaries, ready to check out.

My deputy campaign manager came into my office after that, looked up at me, and just said, “You know, if that guy’s story is the only thing that happens in the entire campaign, it will have been worth it.”