As any presidential candidate will (or should) tell you, the Internet has become a major part of any campaign, and, like everything else on the net, is rapidly evolving not only as strategists become savvier about using the Web, but as the Web’s technology becomes more sophisticated as well.
在第一次关于CNN的总统辩论的那天来自YouTube社区的问题，it’s interesting to note that the candidate the most fervent online support after Barack Obama is Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas who, while not the kind of guy that stands in line overnight for an iPhone, is smart enough to embrace the groundswell of support he’s received on the Internet, and, in an extended election cycle which lends itself to experimentation, has been one of the frontrunners in exploring all that the web has to offer.
这样《纽约时报》杂志文章注意，他是Myspace上最“朋友”的共和党人，YouTube上的视频已被观看超过280,000次，在Eventful.com“要求赛马”，用户要求候选人出现在城镇中的地方，他以10,000票击败了参议员约翰·爱德华兹（John Edwards）。
不过，没有人真正希望保罗能赢得胜利，这使他腾出了一些非常规的竞选策略，例如，詹姆斯·科特基（James Kotecki）在他的宿舍里（见上文）接受采访并出现在“表演的攻击”，一个程序G4，一个有线电视频道的覆盖范围通常围绕最新的视频游戏，其主人称保罗为“共和党的孤独女郎”。（我认为保罗没有完全。）
当然，作为ActBlue的Matt Debergalis可能会告诉您，在网络上真的很受欢迎 - 许多人归因于保罗精通技术的自由主义者的支持者，如果他们不能交付美元和投票，就不会意味着太多。只是问霍华德·迪恩。But Paul’s willingness to try new things, even if he doesn’t completely understand them, is having a trickle-down effect: Two months after Paul talked to Kotecki, the college student had also scored interviews with Mike Huckabee, Sen. Mike Gravel, and Edwards. In the end, Paul’s greatest contribution to the election may not be what he adds to the political conversation, but how he adds to it.