It’s Not the Technology, It’s the Cause
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post blogs about Senator Bill Frist’s use of technology:
How effective any one of these online approaches will be in recruiting supporters (and donors) to Frist’s 2008 cause is an open question. There is a at least one crucial difference between Dean and Frist. Like him or hate him, the former Vermont governor inspired passion and loyalty among those who believed in him. At best, Frist can be described as low-key, at worst boring. Can a man with the Tennessee senator’s mien inspire people to activism via the Web?
While I would argue that the technology does little to actually generate excitement, neither do I believe it’s all about a candidate’s charisma. The excitement comes from the candidate somehow being perceived as a cause. And a candidate doesn’t have to be exciting to be perceived as a cause. Dean was exciting because of his stance on Iraq. Kerry because he wasn’t Bush. But in both cases, the technology didn’t generate excitement. It channeled excitement.
