Presidential Blogging 2008

As a former political consultant, I’ve always had a fascination for the role of the web in democratic politics. More recently, the area of Social Media has become a much discussed new battle ground for the way in which elections will be fought and no-where is this more apparent than in the United States.

The recent Democratic Primary in Connecticut that saw former VP candidate Joe Lieberman fall at the hands of the blogerati was the match that lit the fuse. Now, all presidential candidates are taking the power wielded by the blogerati as a very serious threat and potential ally in their bid for the hottest seat of all. Which of these it becomes (friend or foe) is something that the 2008 Presidential Election is going to determine more than ever before.

More than 60 million Americans or 46% of Web users, went online during the last campaign season to exchange e-mails about candidates or learn about the elections. That’s according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report, “Election 2006 Online,” also stated that far more U.S. adults relied on the Web for information last election cycle than during the 2002 mid-term elections. This displays the power of the web when it comes to voting and is something that no candidate can or will take for granted.

Furthermore, the YearlyKos convention of 2006 displayed this once again as a raft of potential candidates (mostly democratic) attended the 3-day bloggers conference in Las Vegas in order to meet with the top movers and shakers. Potential candidates including: Mark Warner, Howard Dean, Gov Tom Vilsack of Iowa and even Republican Gen Wesley C.Clark were spotted roaming the halls.

One very interesting aspect of this will be the money spent on online ads and the media buy that the candidates will spend on purchasing online real estate. This time around, the focus will be slightly different in that the key players will be a number of political blogs where the candidates will vie for attention and advertising space. This won’t just be about spending money on ad space, but also about feeding exclusive stories to the bloggers behind these sites and bringing them in on the campaigns. It will be interesting to see how many stories are broken online via blogs as opposed to through the more traditional media outlets.

In general terms, it is the Democrats that seem to have a better stranglehold on the web whilst the Republicans are still seen as gaining support through older media methods (talk radio for example is often cited as one of their most powerful weapons). Having said that, one Democratic candidate who is expected to receive a tough time from political bloggers will be their current front-runner – Hilary Clinton. Senator Clinton is highly unpopular with this crowd, in no small part because she supported going to war in Iraq.

In the last presidential election - when the blogosphere was less mature -ads on blogs didn’t surface until around 11 months before the vote, according to Blogads founder Henry Copeland. This has clearly changed with former Senator John Edwards and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney both recently running ads on political blogs, via Blogads. What’s more, both candidates have promised extensive online efforts in the coming race. Edwards’ blog ads began appearing earlier this year, on sites including Daily Kos, MyDD, AmericaBlog, and Crooks and Liars. The ads offer links to Edwards’ video message from New Orleans announcing his candidacy, hosted on YouTube, and to his campaign site.

Most importantly, the fact that all of the campaigns appear to be turning to the Web so early for online advertising of any kind appears to be a strong sign of what’s to come…