Meet Hillary 2.0
By CBSNews.com's Christine Lagorio.
When Hillary Clinton began her run for U.S. Senate in 1999, she embarked on a "a statewide listening tour," for which she trudged through every county of New York State, visiting with small groups and paying particular attention to conservative upstate regions.
It worked.
Seven years later, Clinton is trying her old routine, but with a cyber twist. In the era of Web 2.0, meet Hillary 2.0.
Instead of rural town hall campaigning, Clinton is meeting voters in online video chats, from the comfort of a living room — or at least a pretty convincing staged couch-and-computer setup — for "conversations," in which viewers can type out and submit questions.
Through video streamed on her Web site, for a half-hour Clinton answered about a dozen queries on each of three evenings this week. Questions ranged from "What is your favorite movie?" (from Jean in New Jersey) to "Do you plan on ending our dependence on foreign oil?" (Linda in Pensacola, Fla.).
"Well, Linda, I do!" Clinton said into the camera, explaining she thinks the United States will be better able to deal with threats of terrorists once it is not funding them. She talked about alternative energy ("I like to call it 'smart' energy") and stressed ethanol. But really, the answer was "probably longer and more wonkish than I can explain in one little Web chat," she said.
Despite the Web's limitations, Clinton's staff is banking that in an era of MySpace and YouTube, voters feel comfortable watching streaming video, receiving campaign e-mail updates and reading blogs to learn candidates' positions on issues.
Clinton entered the presidential race by posting a Web video. And to run its Web operation, her campaign scooped up at least four political bloggers, including Peter Daou, who worked on Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and blogs for Salon and the Huffington Post.
"Internet and technology has become an integral part of politics, and it is a great way for Sen. Clinton to have a conversation with people," Daou, the campaign's Internet director, told CBSNews.com producer Christine Lagorio. "It is a wonderful democratic medium that allows people to connect with each other and with the campaign."
The Hillary for President blog is still getting up and running, pending the end of a contest to "write the very first guest post." According to Daou, thousands of submissions have been received.
The Numbers Game
Thousands of responses to an online query is just the beginning. Ask political bloggers or staffers of previous "wired" campaigns, and they predict a much broader e-campaign horizon.
Howard Dean's campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2004, run by Joe Trippi, is cited as the prototypical Web-savvy campaign. The Internet — remember Meetup.com and the coining of "netroots?" — fueled that initial surge of support for Dean. In the end, all the net hype was deflated by the Dean scream and a flurry of mainstream media (MSM in Web lingo) commentary.
"I think this is going to be the campaign where the Internet actually affects the outcome," Trippi said. "It is going to be amazing."
Trippi cites numbers. If in 2000 Sen. John McCain raised a couple million dollars with an Internet campaign, and Dean raised $59 million four years later, he predicts the top Internet candidates will pull in half a billion before the election.
"Whatever records we set in terms of people involved and money and those things, they will just be shattered by multiple candidates in 2008," Trippi said.
Cross-pollination
Bloggers are playing an increasingly significant role in presidential campaigns. Clinton has plucked Daou, along with Crystal Patterson (from DailyKos), Jesse Berney (who ran DNC blog operations in 2004) and Judd Legum (of Think Progress).
The other candidates have also "staked out their turf already," according to Taegan Goddard, publisher of PoliticalWire, an online politics news site.
The campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards divided most of the Dean Internet team, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani nabbed President Bush's 2004 chief campaign blogger.
Amid such hiring, Daou said there is a lot of discussion about bloggers — some formerly independent news sources — becoming part of the establishment.
"There are more and more campaigns and organizations reaching out to people who have blogged before, and I think you're going to see some cross-pollination," he said.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. When Hillary Clinton began her run for U.S. Senate in 1999, she embarked on a "a statewide listening tour," for which she trudged through every county of New York State, visiting with small groups and paying particular attention to conservative upstate regions.
It worked.
Seven years later, Clinton is trying her old routine, but with a cyber twist. In the era of Web 2.0, meet Hillary 2.0.
Instead of rural town hall campaigning, Clinton is meeting voters in online video chats, from the comfort of a living room — or at least a pretty convincing staged couch-and-computer setup — for "conversations," in which viewers can type out and submit questions.
Through video streamed on her Web site, for a half-hour Clinton answered about a dozen queries on each of three evenings this week. Questions ranged from "What is your favorite movie?" (from Jean in New Jersey) to "Do you plan on ending our dependence on foreign oil?" (Linda in Pensacola, Fla.).
"Well, Linda, I do!" Clinton said into the camera, explaining she thinks the United States will be better able to deal with threats of terrorists once it is not funding them. She talked about alternative energy ("I like to call it 'smart' energy") and stressed ethanol. But really, the answer was "probably longer and more wonkish than I can explain in one little Web chat," she said.
Despite the Web's limitations, Clinton's staff is banking that in an era of MySpace and YouTube, voters feel comfortable watching streaming video, receiving campaign e-mail updates and reading blogs to learn candidates' positions on issues.
Clinton entered the presidential race by posting a Web video. And to run its Web operation, her campaign scooped up at least four political bloggers, including Peter Daou, who worked on Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and blogs for Salon and the Huffington Post.
"Internet and technology has become an integral part of politics, and it is a great way for Sen. Clinton to have a conversation with people," Daou, the campaign's Internet director, told CBSNews.com producer Christine Lagorio. "It is a wonderful democratic medium that allows people to connect with each other and with the campaign."
The Hillary for President blog is still getting up and running, pending the end of a contest to "write the very first guest post." According to Daou, thousands of submissions have been received.
The Numbers Game
Thousands of responses to an online query is just the beginning. Ask political bloggers or staffers of previous "wired" campaigns, and they predict a much broader e-campaign horizon.
Howard Dean's campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2004, run by Joe Trippi, is cited as the prototypical Web-savvy campaign. The Internet — remember Meetup.com and the coining of "netroots?" — fueled that initial surge of support for Dean. In the end, all the net hype was deflated by the Dean scream and a flurry of mainstream media (MSM in Web lingo) commentary.
"I think this is going to be the campaign where the Internet actually affects the outcome," Trippi said. "It is going to be amazing."
Trippi cites numbers. If in 2000 Sen. John McCain raised a couple million dollars with an Internet campaign, and Dean raised $59 million four years later, he predicts the top Internet candidates will pull in half a billion before the election.
"Whatever records we set in terms of people involved and money and those things, they will just be shattered by multiple candidates in 2008," Trippi said.
Cross-pollination
Bloggers are playing an increasingly significant role in presidential campaigns. Clinton has plucked Daou, along with Crystal Patterson (from DailyKos), Jesse Berney (who ran DNC blog operations in 2004) and Judd Legum (of Think Progress).
The other candidates have also "staked out their turf already," according to Taegan Goddard, publisher of PoliticalWire, an online politics news site.
The campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards divided most of the Dean Internet team, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani nabbed President Bush's 2004 chief campaign blogger.
Amid such hiring, Daou said there is a lot of discussion about bloggers — some formerly independent news sources — becoming part of the establishment.
"There are more and more campaigns and organizations reaching out to people who have blogged before, and I think you're going to see some cross-pollination," he said.
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In Febuary of 2006 when I found out that there was now a Shipping Company involved I knew that if I notified Senator Clinton she would be as alarmed as I was. I will tell you this American Airlines Flight 11 and the Anthrax went through the same house. When the time is right you will find out about how incompetent Bush was!!!
If the Republicans keep ignoring the results of the November, 2006 election, then Hillary will do just fine.
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON WAS NOT PERFECT, NEITHER AM I, AND NEITHER ARE YOU, BUT THEN WHO IS? HE SERVED AMERICA VERY WELL. LET US CONTINUE TO SUPPORT AND CONTRIBUTE TO ELECT "THE CLINTON'S" FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
I HAVE NEVER FELT AS EXCITED AND HOPEFUL ABOUT AN UPCOMING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AS I FEEL RIGHT NOW. BEFORE SENATOR CLINTON OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED HER RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, I HAD BEEN HOPING THAT SHE WOULD BE COURAGEOUS ENOUGH TO TAKE THE GREAT CHALLENGE. NOT THAT I WAS SURPRISED. I MAY NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF SENATOR CLINTON'S POLICIES BUT I STAND BEHIND HER. I PLAN TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING HER CAMPAIGN AND WILL SOON VOLUNTEER MY TIME TO CONTRIBUTE TO WHAT I BELIEVE WILL BE A PRESIDENT TO GO DOWN.... NOT JUST IN HISTORY BUT IN OUR HEARTS AS WELL. SHALOM!!
AWILDA RODRIGUEZ, 39
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 12:01 PM : Jan 26, 2007"
Its worse than you can imagine. The ruling elites of all political stripes send their kids to the same private schools, educate them at the same Ivy League universities, hobnob at the same exclusive clubs, and intermarry until their gene pool is stagnant.
They just divide up on different sides of the aisle like a game of Red Rover to make Americans naively believe their is two sides to the story. Kennedies and Rockefellers? They are all rich and believe they were born to be your masters. America is being led with a ring in its nose.