As the Post reports today, Ron Paul's got more MySpace and Facebook friends than any of the front-running GOP candidates. Donations to his campaign have increased from $640,000 in the first quarter to $5.1 million in the third quarter, as of two weeks ago. And the number of people on his staff has increased from 10 in July to 45 today. And as most know, his success has come largely by having a lot of virtual feet on the ground – his legion of Paulites pound the digital pavement to gather support.
So when I was reading the weekend Times piece on how the internet isn't living up to its potential in Iowa, it was hard for me to see that as a fault of the medium. Seems like a fault of the primary system, and of the bizarre circumstances in which we concentrate on Iowa, of all places. All of this hemming and hawing about efficacy of new media campaign outreach is still premature. In the not-so-distant future, the generation of Iowans who have never read a blog will die off, as will the undue emphasis on the state as we move toward a better system for selecting our candidates. And when we get to that point, will someone like Ron Paul stand a chance?
--Kate Sheppard
