Politcal Gastronomica

So – is anyone surprised at John Edwards being selected as the VP candidate? After so much speculation and discussion – it is almost funny that Senator Edwards was thought of not being the primary candidate. If I was going to tell you my belief when the moment was that he was destined to be the VP was in the sit-down debate with Larry King – as the two of them were discussing the issues – and you could see the “easy” rapport they had. In the Internet Team, I remember someone saying “There he goes – applying for the VP position”.

He brings all the things he says he does – and interjects the campaign with momentum as well. And, whether or not he is a trial lawyer or was against NAFTA – truthfully, he is campaigning – he is terrific campaigner – and, from people I work with that worked with him, he is a good person. And for that, I support him wholeheartedly.

Why are people so surprised about JohnKerry.com asking for emails to receive the VP announcement. This is the first Presidential campaign that finally got the power of the Internet when it comes to fundraising and money generation.

Twelve months ago, the Kerry Campaign had an email list of under 180,000 email addresses that could barely get a boost from any announcement – even the launch of the website in early September only
generated 7,000 new email addresses.

Today, a petition to fire Rumsfeld acquired 250,000 emails into the campaign’s coffiers – and in two days, the campaign generated on the order of $5M into their coffiers. What is not clearly comprehended by much of the people in politics today is that emails are golden – they are the low-cost, high-tech alternative to direct mail. And in this world, the owner of emails that generate the return – gets the gold. In the dot.com era, we use to talk about the long-term value (LTV) of a customer. In this era, LTV is determined by the news cycle – and email and the ability to respond and communicate to a group of supporters – whether they are strongly tied to you or not – is the power the Kerry Campaign now has. And since the campaign is NOT the DNC and is not governed by all of the strictures that the DNC is governed by, it has been able to push the limits – the bounds – of what could happen. What Kerry has tapped into is similar to the subscriber model – once you give once, it is so much easier to give again – especially if you have only given something like $10, $20 or $50. Now, with McCain-Finegold, democratic politics and the connection that people have to the candidate is even stronger.

Why do I think Kerry will win? Simply, he has generated the most people who have “supported” him throughout the campaign. In this campaign, over a 250,000 people will have donated to the campaign online – and, when the numbers come out, over to 1M emails will have been captured.

The question will be – how will the DNC and the campaign use this list of names and performance to get out the vote.

Spent yesterday in Boston at Jock Gill’s event – and another event that I have not remembered the name of. When I arrived at the breakfast, ended up meeting a lot of people – but the ones I spent the morning with:

• David H who was the Director of IT and Internet from the Dean campaign in the formative days,
• Frank Reta who was Dave’s IT manager who is now running the Boxer tech side of the campaign,
• Mike Liddle from the Lieberman campaign who is now working the DNCC Online Communications
• Josh Hender and Austin Lin – programming geniuses from the Clark campaign.

I have heard all sorts of commentary on the strengths and shortcomings of the other campaigns – but I have been quite impressed with the other guys from the other campaigns.

Thinking once again about what is happening in the world – especially with the bombing in Spain and the effect it is having with the markets – and then, watching how Bush first launches “positive” ads, and now launches some pretty “negative” ones.

What blows me away is the fact that they are intriguing distortions on “facts” that have beeen culled from various media reports and comments made by Democratic candidates. And what is “funny” is the fact that the plan from the Republicans seems to be highlight the negatives of Kerry so people will not notice the past four years of Bush. Very scary…

As for the challenge ahead for us – Super Tuesday was an amazing experience – in terms of fundraising – and endorsements (especially with the Governor coming by on Wednesday – check out this photo for a candid. The interesting thing will be what happens next – to keep our supporters engaged – and ready to vote come November.

Interesting efforts have begun with the tech supporters from Dean (Tech4Dean) and how they can engage the Presidential Campaign in helping GOTV and supporting our voter outreach. They are extremely enthusiastic – and we are in need of how to work with them in an effective manner. But we are discovering all sorts of interesting issues that require our research to make sure we work well together.

This weekend – Dick and I are heading to Boston to meet with Jock Gill and others about coordinating efforts with other volunteers. Will be interesting…

It has been some time since I wrote about the campaign – and things that has been happening. Events like Super Tuesday were quite astounding – especially when Edwards decided to drop out. Then, the following day, the outpouring of donations has been so large that we broke all fundraising records – exceeding $1M in a 18 hour period – when all is said and done – we willhave come close to $2M in one 24 hour period – this with the help of Moveon.org and other supporters.

Now – with the nomination “sown up” – the question becomes how to handle the Bush juggernaught – and how to defend against his attacks. In addition, there is the need to demonstrate why JK is the person to be president given all of the opposition that the Bush machine is going to launch at him. His record is nuanced – but Bush likes to talk “black and white”. Pundits and advisors love to say that the American public is only into these kind of statements – but can we leverage the Internet to demonstrate the nuance – and keep JK above the fray and speaking on the “vision” messages?