Democrats for Incompetence

I just finished reading the Verini article on Kerry's lackluster campaign organization. While everyone now knows that the Kerry campaign was in a state of disarray from start to finish, it was interesting to see Verini's point of view as a volunteer to the campaign. Verini says that Kerry's team was did not establish a real rationale for the Kerry candidacy and instead brought together a coalition of people who just hated George W. Bush.

While it is clear that the Kerry campaign lacked message discipline throughout its ranks, it also appears that Kerry could have used the internet better the act as a persuassion and mobilization tool rather than just using it as a fundraising tool. Bush was effective in reaching out the younger voters through the internet. The Bush team got the fact that this would be the medium to which many of their young supporters would respond. Kerry, on the other hand, lacked a coherent internet strategy and lacked any sort of synergy between his use of the internet and the campaigns ground operations.

Verini's experience only underscores the Democratic Party's need to pull their act together when it comes to online/offline synergy. Maybe Governor Dean will be successful in using the internet more effectively for Democratic candidates than the junior Senator from Massachusetts was a year ago. Only time (and more Democratic loses) will tell.