DFA: Dean for Aggrandizement

With all due respect to the current leader of our august Party, Dean lost! Can we please stop talking about him! It annoys me that every discussion of politics and the Internet eventually comes around to Howard Dean. Yes, Joe Trippi (Joe Trippi - NOT Howard Dean) used the Internet in an innovative way to raise loads of cash and some serious earned media. But ultimately, the Internet failed him, and here's how:

In his great wisdom, Terry McAuliffe wanted a front-loaded primary system (okay, it made sense at the time...) In reality, that meant that Iowa was the most important place in the world. As it turned out, if you didn't have traction after Iowa, you didn't have squat.

So, here comes DFA with it's fancy website, into Iowa. If you've never been to Iowa, its a lovely place, but it population is overwhelmingly old, white, rural and Christian. That's not exactly the typical profile of an Internet user. In fact, only 39% of Iowans used the Internet to research candidates.

Gephardt, being from a similarly old, white, Christian state himself, understood this and while the media was getting all worked up about the Dean Machine, he was sending out 42 direct mail pieces in the last month before the caucus, most of them attacking Dean. This stealthy, not-sexy-to-report weapon dealt a body blow to the Dean campaign while also taking out Gephardt, as Dean attacked back. This paved the way for Kerry and Edwards to sail through to the 1 and 2 spots. After all, 39% of Iowans used the Internet, but who doesn't get the their daily mail?

My point is, DFA used the Internet in a new and innovative way, but they lost sight of the caucusers. Dean ran a national campaign, but forgot he had to win Iowa first. He used tools (the Internet and the 20-year-old-Starbucks-drinking-daddy's-Hummer-driving-faux-anti-globalization-environmentalist-Deaniac volunteers it attracted) that didn't fit the job.

While Internet campaigning has great untapped potential, one thing Dean taught us is that candidates need to always keep in mind the audience when choosing the tools of their campaign. Also, don't scream.