John Edwards, the e-Candidate

The Presidential hopeful's Web efforts show the benefits and limits of using emerging media to gain an early edge in the '08 campaign

by Matt Vella

John Edwards' 2008 Presidential ambitions weren't much of a secret. He's been campaigning one way or another since losing his Vice-Presidential bid as John Kerry's running mate in 2004. Yet his official announcement managed to turn heads. The surprise was not that he announced, but how he did it.

Edwards' ambitions were unveiled on a video broadcast on Google's (GOOG) YouTube and in an e-mail to supporters. In the clip, the former senator from North Carolina looked into the camera and delivered a pitch that appeared unedited, unscripted, and short on rhetoric. He plugged his Web site and asked supporters to get involved by sending text messages from their cell phones.

The announcement underscores the growing impact that emerging Internet media are having on politics and how they're likely to shape the 2008 election. Edwards intends to use the Internet to make early gains on other would-be Democratic candidates, but even the savviest cyber-hopeful will have an uphill battle against the likely Democratic frontrunners, Illinois Senator Barack Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

Web Strategies

There's never been a better time for politicos to tap the Internet. Twice as many Americans used the Web as their primary source of news about the 2006 election cycle as in 2002, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press released on Jan. 17.

Of those, almost one in four reported creating or forwarding original political commentary and videos. An additional 20% say they got political news from online journals, or blogs, and 24% from issue-oriented sites.

"The vanguard of YouTubers and bloggers has become influential in politics," Lee Rainie, Pew Internet project director, said in a statement (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/02/06, "Digital Mudslinging"). "Those who wish to engage voters around a particular issue or candidate have more tools at their disposal than they did just four years ago."

Edwards is hardly alone among hopefuls to wield such tools: Clinton used a Web clip on Jan. 20 to announce plans to form a committee to explore a Presidential bid. Obama did the same on Jan. 16. Still, the cyber-effectiveness of Edwards' campaign stands out in several ways, analysts and pundits say.

Although he retired from the Senate during the 2004 bid, Edwards hasn't strayed far from the online political fray. "He's done nothing but campaign; he has no other job," says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "If any Democratic candidate were going to apply knowledge of the Internet, it would be him."