The Dean Explanation

The Register: Techno utopians’ Net Candidate falters. Their point is that the man, the message, and finding enough people who like the man and the message is what ultimately determines the outcome of elections, not some mythical internet creature. That’s all true.

But they’re missing the point that to a lot of people who have seen their views on the media and politics transformed by their ability to publish, reading what other “normal” people are writing, and in general participating in two-way conversations instead of the usual one-way broadcast—these people actually see Dean’s untraditional campaign as part of the message. Or part of the person, I’m not sure. But in that sense, it does become part of what determines the election.

Not the internet per se, of course, but people that see the power of the internet, and who like it when politicians do too.