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Joe Trippi Interviewed 365

Posted by michael from the this-internet-thing-could-be-big dept.
MikeCapone writes "Mother Jones and Alternet interviewed Joe Trippi,the guy behind the Howard Dean campaign ('the candidate lost but the campaign won'). He has a new book out, 'The Revolution will not be Televised' (click for excerpt), about how the Internet is radically changing the way politics is done. Choice quote from the interview: 'The open-source stuff was amazing. I mean, 650,000 brains are a lot smarter than the 50 [...] They spotted stuff that we didn't see, came up with ideas we wouldn't have thought of, and made the campaign a lot stronger. Just like how open-source works in running software -- it's the difference between Linux and Microsoft.'"
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Joe Trippi Interviewed More

Joe Trippi Interviewed

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  • 'the candidate lost but the campaign won'?

    • it means (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mpost4 ( 115369 ) * on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:07AM (#9769243) Homepage Journal
      It means that "he fired up all the troops in the democrate party, before he was stabed in the back." (this is actualy a quote from Rush)
      • Dunno how Rush is an authority on the Democratic party all of the sudden, but Trippi was not "stabed in the back" [sic], and has said so himself repeatedly since parting ways with the Dean campaign. It's just the nature of the game.
    • It means that the campaign changed the way campaigning will be done. If you RTFA (yeah, I know), the Internet is becoming a way of connecting more personally, of allowing Joe Blow to participate in the campaign; of getting people to communicate with their leaders and potential leaders, rather than just listening to them. And that's what democracy is supposed to be about, right? The voice of the people? The individual being valued as much as the group?

      As he pointed out in the interview, the Kerry camp
      • > It means that the campaign changed the way campaigning will be done. If you RTFA (yeah, I know), the Internet is becoming a way of connecting more personally, of allowing Joe Blow to participate in the campaign; of getting people to communicate with their leaders and potential leaders, rather than just listening to them.

        And because the candidate lost, and because his Party has its leaders lined up until 2012 (Kerry '04. If he wins, Kerry-08, Clinton-12. If he loses, Clinton-08, Clinton-12), I'd

    • What does it mean? It means Microsoft beat Linux. So we're still doomed. DOOMED, I tell you!
    • It means most of the campaign money (millions) went to companies owned by campaign manager Trippi, anytime you can get people to send you money you win! Even when you come in 3rd.

  • 650,000 brains (Score:5, Funny)

    by Waltan Hammett ( 694698 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:04AM (#9769214)
    And not one of them thought, "Hey, Chief, down the volume on that scream..."

    • The 'mike' wasn't open source (Score:4, Informative)

      by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:26AM (#9769357)
      Supposedly the way "the scream" came off had to do with quite common directional microphone tech. It didn't play badly at 1 AM or whatever in a crowd in Iowa, it just got blown out of proportion.

      Think of seeing an opera star on TV. In person in a crowded hall is one thing. With a televised close-up, suddenly the big stage acting becomes grotesque. That's what happened to Dean.

      • All too true. Once the media got that video clip they just wore it out playing it over and over and over again. Dare I say they were politically motivated to do so? I think so.

        • The networks were taking the feed right off the directional mike, while Dean's famous whooping hardly made a dent in the ambient noise of the cheering supporters.

          Once again, like 98% of voting Americans, I'll simply be reduced in November to choosing the lesser of two evils.

          Dean's direct, logical approach was refreshing. [I recall where his support numbers grew larger in sampled populations as the degree of education increased. His support among PhDs was high.]

          Logic didn't win, though. Nor can real peop

          • Right. The way he was speaking was perfect for the room filled with loud supporters. That directional mic problem was only ever explained once in the main stream media that I know of. It was a couple weeks after the fact, after Dean's campaign was dead. Some media person, I forget who or where, looked back on the Dead Campaign and the mic incident and asked if they (the media) was too hard on him. Well duh. I think Dean would have been good president. So would some of the others. I hope you don't ha
        • For the tin foil hat crew, I remember reading that Dean's slipping in the polls came soon after he gave a speech against media consolidation.
      • It is not 'supposed', it is the truth. Both CNN and ABC apologized for their treatment of the Dean scream clip, noting that it was not a realistic portrayal of the event. However, these apologies were lost in the 10 million replays of the clip.

  • open source is not officaly a buzz word (Score:3, Funny)

    by mpost4 ( 115369 ) * on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:05AM (#9769223) Homepage Journal
    when a policial canidate uses it.

  • Umm, perhaps this is not the best analog... (Score:3, Funny)

    by gatkinso ( 15975 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:05AM (#9769224)
    ... for Open Source.

    Seeing how Dean got his ass KICKED and all that.

    • Re:Umm, perhaps this is not the best analog... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Then again, perhaps it IS a robust analogy!

      What was Microsoft's market share again?
      Which candidate seems to be using underhanded tactics to get their way, International Law be damned?

      Which OS hates the French?
    • Dean may have lost personally, but he showed the Democrats how to raise money using the internet. Because of Dean, the Democrats have raised almost as much as Republicans for the presidential race, a fact which was INCONCEIVABLE a year ago.

  • This is good news (Score:3, Funny)

    by gowen ( 141411 ) <gwowen@gmail.com> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:08AM (#9769245) Homepage Journal
    ... it makes me just want to

    yyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr gg ggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

  • not the first time (Score:3, Funny)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:11AM (#9769272) Journal

    Joe Trippi--heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who "reinvented campaigning"--was born in California and began his political career working on Edward M. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1980. His work in presidential politics continued with the campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean.

    He's got quite a bit of experience as a campaign manager - maybe he just needs to be a little more selective in his employers...

  • Does anyone else think this is a bad idea? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tye_Informer ( 412478 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:11AM (#9769273)
    I'm not sure Howard Dean is the best "horse" to hook the open source wagon to! We already have to overcome the linux is only for geeks issue. Do we want add on the screaming fanatic with no grasp on reality issue as well.

    I understand that the Howard Dean scream was to motivate his people. It doesn't mean he's insane. yada yada yada. It doesn't matter what I think, I'm already on our side. What do the big companies decision makers think? In the USA they tend to be white, middle-aged, conservative (Republican).

    All I'm saying, right or wrong, Howard Dean may not be a good influence on the Open Source acceptance in the mainstream.
    • Actually, for some bizarre reason, many owners and CEO's of large businesses, as are many fabulously wealthy people, are democrats. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why. I present to you, for example, Ted Turner, George Soros, and most of the rich and famous in Hollywood (and not just actors).
      • That "bizarre reason" is selflessness and an awareness of the greater good. If you want to boil it down to simple terms, Republicans would rather keep all of their money, while Democrats don't mind giving up a bit to help the less fortunate. Republicans are the party of business, and Democrats are the party of people. It just so happens that there are some businesspeople who still value people over money. It's sad that they are the minority.

        "Compassionate Conservatism" is a red herring.
        • > If you want to boil it down to simple terms, Republicans would rather keep all of their money, while Democrats don't mind giving up a bit to help the less fortunate.

          We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and NOT give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.

          - Hillary Clinton

          Last time I checked, "give" and "take" were not synonyms. Not even in Newspeak.

        • If you want to boil it down to simple terms, Republicans would rather keep all of their money, while Democrats don't mind giving up a bit to help the less fortunate.

          Isn't it amazing how stupid people sound when they boil things down to such simple terms?

          I suppose you have reliable demographic research to back that statement up, right?

          • This is a liberal mantra that's been pounded into the general public by the left for so long that some people believe it's true. It goes right along with all republicans being: racist, cheap, uncaring, greedy, selfish, white, good old boy, stupid, misled, uniformed sheep.

            It's really not worth arguing about on slashdot, or how much evidence you might have to the contrary (or how much evidence you have showing many democrats actually fit that description), you're not going to change any minds here.
            • It's really not worth arguing about on slashdot, or how much evidence you might have to the contrary (or how much evidence you have showing many democrats actually fit that description), you're not going to change any minds here.

              Nope, but it sure is a fun way to pass the time.. :D

              It goes right along with all republicans being: racist, cheap, uncaring, greedy, selfish, white, good old boy, stupid, misled, uniformed sheep.

              And Democrats being liberal tree hugging, latee drinking, elite, volvo driving, ta
          • Do you have reliable demographic research to show otherwise? I doubt either of us do, so why don't we agree to hate each other. At least Bush is a uniter, not a divider. Yay!
        • Republicans would rather keep all of their money, while Democrats don't mind giving up a bit to help the less fortunate. Republicans are the party of business, and Democrats are the party of people.

          I am a libertarian leaning republican. I firmly believe every mouth should be fed, everyone should have a roof over their head, everyone should be clothed, everyone should have access to education and healthcare. The difference is, and always has been, in the methods. I don't mind the government spending my
      • That's easy...

        Hollywood fears that the Christian conservatives that wield so much power in the Republican party will censor the hell out of their "products"- state-approved news and movies and books and all that.

        So, they have to vote Democrat.
        • That's a nice guess, but it's completely wrong.

          When was the last time anybody was TRULY censored? Sure, a lot of people claim censorship, but I haven't seen a REAL example of censorship.

          On the other hand, when was the last time you heard someone from Hollywood complain about Iraq?
          • Just because they haven't been censored yet, doesn't mean they wouldn't be in the future.

            I think it's a pretty valid fear, myself. The Christian Right would love to get control over Hollywood, and the media in general.
            • Just because aliens haven't taken over the world doesn't mean it won't happen in the future, either. Do you really believe censorship is on the horizon?

              Like I said, I've seen a lot of people claim it, but I've not seen one good example of it, and the fact that people are out there complaining about a non-existent problem only proves the point.

              Let's assume the Christian Right does somehow take over Hollywood... what exactly does that mean? Will it keep YOU from making a movie about the horrors of the Chr
      • It's called guilt. They feel guilty about being rich. Of course, the class warfare constantly engaged in by the Democratic party doesn't help.

        Note, however, that they assuage their guilt by spending OTHER people's money.
    • What do the big companies decision makers think?

      They think Linux is an IBM product, because IBM tells them so on the commercials that they televise during football games.

      What Trippi is saying is that OSS, and the "do it yourself" philosophy that it embraces, is changing Democratic politics. This got started in the Dean campaign but has been adopted heavily by the Kerry campaign, which not only uses OSS for its servers but has adopted a lot of Dean's tactics for organizing volunteers and collecting hard

    • Think of Dean as the Democratic party's RMS if you will. Now, it's easy to bitch about how RMS, with his long hair and ideological purity and general bitter-old-hippie vibe, scares away the PHB's who might otherwise be receptive to open source, and that may even be true. But it is also true that people like RMS provide the energy and determination to keep things moving; I can almost guarantee you that IBM would not be running ads for Linux servers today if RMS, or someone very like him, weren't around. O
    • We already have to overcome the linux is only for geeks issue. Do we want add on the screaming fanatic with no grasp on reality issue as well.

      Well, Microsoft have Steve Ballmer - perhaps the OS game requires you to be linked with a sweaty screaming guy?
  • Of course, Gil Scott Heron popularized the phrase 'the revolution will not be televised', in the album of the same name.

    And here [changeforamerica.com] is the blog for the change for america guys Joe Trippi is hooked up with.

    ----------------
    ChipotleLovers.com [chipotlelovers.com]
    Chipotle food, locations, pics, links, polls and discussion!
    • I don't understand - Trippi is using it to say that people won't watch the revolution (yeah, exaggeration, big whoop), but that they'll be involved with it. GSH is saying the same, right? That it won't be something people watch or hear about, but something people just *do*?
      • Yeah, I think GSH was saying the revolution doesn't have anything to do with pop culture. That it's going to be something that happens largely outside the view of mainstream media and mainstream people. (Sounds like a small revolution). In addition, I think GSH may have had more of a problem with white people than Trippi does.

        The song lyrics are blazing hot:
        Lyrics [gilscottheron.com]

        ---------------------
        ChipotleLovers.com [chipotlelovers.com]
        Chipotle food, locations, pics, links, polls and discussion!

  • The man is a genius (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    He convinced a bunch of fools to part with their money using the Internet just like the Spammers and he didn't even promise to get make their dick bigger! The Dean campaign was the great Internet swindle of 2003. Just like the Dot Com boom companies and their IPOs. Thus making Howard Dean the Democratic version of the Pets.com mascot.

  • Interesting stuff from article... (Score:4, Funny)

    by diagnosis ( 38691 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:17AM (#9769303) Homepage
    Dean's Newbie-ism:
    JT: When we started, Howard was sort of a technophobe; he'd barely just begun using e-mail. He didn't know what a blog was. He went from "What's a blog?" to coming into headquarters saying "I want to blog today." And by the end of the campaign, he was asking, "Why doesn't the White House have a blog? If I'm elected president, I'm going to have a blog."

    Problems of scale:
    JT: As we grew to 650,000 people, the site was still an amazing self-policing thing. The problem was, once you get to 650,000, how do you communicate with them personally the way I, as the campaign manager, or Dean, as the candidate, had been communicating with 432? I used to answer every email personally, and suddenly I was getting 10,000 emails a day. That's the thing I'd like to figure out for the future. It was the one big problem we had, because we'd built this thing on personal communication and connection.

    Solution to problem of scale:
    Obviously, they just need to run slashcode.

    -------------------
    ChipotleLovers.com [chipotlelovers.com]
    Chipotle food, locations, pics, links, polls and discussion!

  • The Revolution will not be blogged either (Score:4, Informative)

    by eltoyoboyo ( 750015 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:18AM (#9769311) Journal
    I think that Mr. Trippi misses the gist of Gil Scott-Heron's lyrics [bikesummer.org] to 'The Revolution will not be Televised'.

  • 'the candidate lost but the campaign won' (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:20AM (#9769320) Journal
    It's funny -- I was just talking with someone about the conflict of interest between candidates and campaign managers. Theoretically, the campaign manager's goal is the candidate's victory -- in reality, his long term prospects depend as much on how his campaign is perceived than on how the candidate eventually fares. So, for example, Kerry may have been the winner of the 2004 primaries but the only thing anyone will remember is Joe Trippi and blogs and the cult-ish atmosphere the Dean campaign constructed.

    It's interesting to see Trippi himself say it so nakedly. Of course, I don't see him talking about the other big conflict of interest: the millions of dollars in advertising kickbacks he walked off with.

    • So, for example, Kerry may have been the winner of the 2004 primaries but the only thing anyone will remember is Joe Trippi and blogs and the cult-ish atmosphere the Dean campaign constructed.

      Primaries? Remember? Hahah. The only people that remember primaries are wonks. It's like watching the full regular season of baseball. Who's doing that? Only the hardcore fans.

      Of course, I don't see him talking about the other big conflict of interest: the millions of dollars in advertising kickbacks he walked off

    • Re:'the candidate lost but the campaign won' (Score:5, Informative)

      by acaben ( 80896 ) * <<bstanfield> <at> <gmail.com>> on Thursday July 22, 2004 @10:18AM (#9769802)
      Trippi didn't get advertising kickbacks. Trippi's firm didn't get advertising kickbacks. Read the book, this is all explained very clearly. The way political advertising works is this: the media firm does the ad buying. They get a 15% commission on the ads they buy. So the Dean campaign gave millions to Trippi's firm to spend on television ads. From that, the firm took a 7% commission, less than half of what the industry standard is. Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work on the Dean campaign. But he would have made that money whether he had worked his ass off as campaign manager or not. His firm had already been hired to do the media, and as a partner, he would have gotten 1/3 of the 7% commission no matter what. There were no kick backs. There was nothing fishy about the situation. Anyone involved in media or politics knows that this is the way it works, and the speculation that Trippi got kickbacks or embezzled is such pure bullshit.

      • Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work

        Perks! Don't forget the perks!

        Free travel on buses throughout New Hampshire and Iowa!

        Food from the fine establishments along the road!

        And I won't even begin to mention the groupies - the crowds of hotties are almost like being at Slashdot!

      • I don't see how this explanation washes, quite frankly.

        Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work on the Dean campaign. But he would have made that money whether he had worked his ass off as campaign manager or not. His firm had already been hired to do the media, and as a partner, he would have gotten 1/3 of the 7% commission no matter what.

        Isn't the conflict of interest in such an arrangement obvious? You don't need to speculate about "kickbacks" or "embezzlement" -- all you need

  • how apropos (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bob dobalina ( 40544 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:20AM (#9769322)
    Expropriating an old catchphrase on the cover of his book, and then expropriating free software concepts inside it. Both, badly.
  • Just like how open-source works in running software -- it's the difference between Linux and Microsoft.'"

    All these years I have been half expecting RMS to shout "YEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" to conclude a Linux/GNULinux rant.
  • and made the campaign a lot stronger. Just like how open-source works in running software -- it's the difference between Linux and Microsoft

    Last I checked, Linux has yet to win the OS wars.

  • The Campaign Won? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by USAPatriot ( 730422 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:24AM (#9769348) Homepage
    The Howard Dean campaign was an example of all hype and no substance. The man who gots lots of press from the young and hip made no impact after his campaign was over.

    What success did his campaign really have? Aside from charging up the angry Bush-haters, he made no headway with the mainstream. When the primaries came, he couldn't manage to win even one. Even John Edwards came up better than Dean, and now he's the Vice-Presidential candidate.

    This open-source nonsense is just that. Outside of the liberal, techy crowd, Howard Dean and his movement is a distant and faded memory.

    • Re:The Campaign Won? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gamgee5273 ( 410326 ) *
      Not really. Those of us who have managed campaigns and are interested in the use of technology in them found Dean's campaign to be a sign of things to come.

      The campaign itself the the tactics worked - Dean got the press he needed. What didn't work was the candidate - as has been the problem with most of Trippi's other campaigns: the candidates (Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale) find a way, usually on national TV, to point a figurative shotgun at their foot and squeeze the trigger. However, that doesn't mean

    • What success did his campaign really have? Aside from charging up the angry Bush-haters, he made no headway with the mainstream.

      Well, depending on who you ask, that is still defined as success. Charging up your base is extremely important and is the reason why the Congress has been trying to put that laughable gay bashing amendment into the Constitution.

      Your base are the people that give you money. Money allows you to run the campaign. Running the campaign allows you to win. No base, no money, no campaig
    • Dean's angry-liberal rhetoric had a direct and energizing effect on the Democrats' willingness to challenge Bush, whom they had previously (and inexplicably to me, as a Dean type) treated with kid gloves. One of my favorite sound bites after the Dean campaign ended was, "At least the doctor gave the Democrats a spine transplant."

  • Joe Trippi and his book (Score:5, Informative)

    by mchadwick ( 714565 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:26AM (#9769359) Homepage
    Having been a sysadmin during the campaign I can't help but question most of the words that come out of Joe Trippi's mouth. The sad truth is that if half of the people here, Trippi included, focussed more on the campaign than on their personal career, we might still be in a campaign now instead of the political action committee, Democracy for America [democracyforamerica.com].

    The truth is hard to find in Trippi's book. Even in my personal case; I built blogforamerica.com and Matt Gross gets the credit because that's the way the political game works.

    Joe can be right just as often as not, but before we go taking his words as gospel I suggest we look behind them a little more.
    • The Dean campaign made a 2 tactical blunders.
      1: They went after the worst possible demographic, with the possible exception of the homeless. I know they did it to generate "media buzz", but by becoming the candidate of the college crowd, he became distasteful to the people who actually drive politics.
      2: They let Dean express his views.
      At least Kerry has the sense to (mostly) be "ABB". Being middle of the road wins elections for Democrats. Republicans can get away with being further from center for some r

  • Dean did have a great idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OO7david ( 159677 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:33AM (#9769409) Homepage Journal
    ...If I'm elected president, I'm going to have a blog.
    I have to give Dean a lot of credit for that one. Where has the accountability gone in presidencies? It would seem to me that such a thing--while, yes, it would be scrutinized for security things--would really put people much at ease and help to eliminate the "whoops, we're at war" feelings.
    • Juichiro Koizumi actually had something like this when he was elected Prime Minister of Japan. I never got to read his email lists (don't speak Japanese, duh) but the idea was to give everyone-and-their-mom who subscribed regular updates as to what was going on. Sort of a "what I did on my summer vacation" for politics. The same goes for the U.S.' FirstGov [firstgov.gov], to be fair.

      The only other people I've seen who tried this consistently are the UK government [direct.gov.uk]. Their pages, even the "government for the people" typ
    • A blog? Hell I would be somewhat pleased if Bush would at least give a damn press conference every once in a while. He has given the least number of press conferences on record, 12. 12. That's over 4 years. 4 years where we had a major tax adjustment, a major terrorist attack, an offensive action against Afghanistan, an offensive unprovoked action against Iraq, a major Medicare adjustment, ballooning defecits, unemployment, a nuclear North Korea and Pakistan.. It's not like there isn't anything to talk abou

  • If you received the campaign's email messages, you know that Joe Trippi is not a good campaign manager or writer. He was disgustingly terrible.

    The Dean campaign was a mess. There was too little guidance to the people who wanted to help. People were pretending to be part of the campaign who were just pushing their own agenda. There were "Dean Campaign" groups who were gays looking for other gays. There were "Dean Campaign" cross-dressers, looking for other cross-dressers, I suppose.

    Joe Trippi was fi

  • that's funny (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Thursday July 22, 2004 @09:41AM (#9769474) Homepage
    Last night's edition of "Nightly Business Report" was saying just the opposite, that the Internet's effect if pretty minimal overall and the biggest results come from good ol' rallys, picnics and door to door volunteers talking to everyday people in the street. Web sites could be rallying points for the jacked-in crowd, but the vast majority it's still just AOL/MSN, pop-ups and spam, with a few emailed photos from relatives and offspring at college. However, NBR was emphasizing personalized, point-casting the message toward individuals over the mass media network broadcasting as a winning strategy.

  • Here's a link to the book over at Amazon [amazon.com]. It sounds like a good book. It's going on my wishlist.
  • He has a new book out, 'The Revolution will not be Televised' (click for excerpt), about how the Internet is radically changing the way politics is done.

    I've become weary of such declarations. Ironic that the 2004 primary season paralleled the dot-com boom: In both cases the Internet created a tremendous amount of "buzz" and everyone said "The Internet has 'radically' changed the rules and the old model is obsolete" -- yet when all was said and done, "buzz" did not translate into stable business models

  • the candidate lost but the campaign won

    Ah, yes, that's oh so different from the usual political bumblethink.

    it's the difference between Linux and Microsoft.

    Not a bad analogy seeing as "Microsoft" got all the votes. :-P

    This election can make a grown man weep. An ebola derived pox on you Party-liners for giving us yet another choice between shit and shat. *shrug* Dean was just another flavor of excrement.

  • I hate to say this, but "open source," will become the hot new buzzword (if it already hasn't). Think back to the glorious dot-com days, where we learned such great words as "synergies," "i-this," "e-that." Someone I know (with no coding experience) had a coding problem which was most likely JavaScript-related. The first thing out of his mouth, "Can open source help us fix this?" Kind of frustrating.

    Anyway, as bad as a tech sector is, there are still plenty of people who want a piece of the action. A

  • It's a political movie that the Venezuelan goverment did to blame the United States on the coup on 4/11/2002.

    More info on http://www.chavezthefilm.com/ [chavezthefilm.com]
  • 95% of them used Internet Explorer and Outlook, I'm sure...
  • ...that the Dean campaign didn't pay nearly enough attention to what their supporters were saying.

    Dean's TV ads were significantly worse than those made on an amateur level by supporters- and yet nothing was done.
  • Not to be too conspiratorial, but in my opinion Dean's campaign, which was successful up until Iowa, was executed by a terrified Democratic National Committee. They knew he had the charisma and the message to energize a new kind of Democrat that would radically skew primary voter demographics to the far left of center, and easily win the nomination.

    The problem is that Far Left, and Far Right are pretty balanced in percentage and pretty much guaranteed to vote for their respective candidate. The middle of
  • Having volunteered in Iowa for 10 months prior to caucus I watched the campaign rise and fall from the inside. Here's just a few points:

    Bad data management. While you could easily see all the kids with their "coding skills", up-all-night work schedule, and Mountain Dew were writing and re-writing database structure to help target voters, someone with very good database experience was hard to find. As such, we were contacting some people numerous times and not contacting others at all.

    Bad communication
  • What the Dean campaign showed was that the internet can be a political magnifying glass. It lets a fringe group (radical, anti-war Bush-hating liberal democrat zealots) seem much more influential and powerful than they really are.

    This is catalized by the early primaries, which tend to attract the more zealous members of a political party, but as the time comes to select a candidate that can grab enough votes to get a majority of electors, the fringe group and their candidates vanish in a puff of reality.

    T

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