The Problem with Internet Only Campaigns or Draft Movements

The Deacon wonders what happened to make people think that they could run a campaign or draft movement solely online. Did the internet become free for everyone, did everyone get a computer, are you foolish enough to think that everyone has a computer and uses it to actively search for your web site? There's no doubt that blogs have become more popular, but they are still not a valid news source, and very few people over the age of 30 are going to search through blogs to find one they like rather than go directly to one they've been told about - and that's where the problem lies.

Sure, you can build up numbers through word of mouth and emails to friends, but what about everyone outside of your circle? "Well, set up a Meetup in your area and start a group." No, for 2 reasons. 1 - it costs money for someone who might not be totally interested in your group to start a Meetup. 2 - these people don't know enough about your group and want to know more, is there downloadable materials for them to distribute to inform the general public?

The Draft Clark movement worked in 2004 because there was an internet and a ground presence - you could actually go out somewhere and find people handing out information about the movement and the candidate. There was a Draft Hagel movement this year, but people obviously thought it could grow on its own without them stepping up and out. There was the great failure that is Unity08, where tech geeks thought they could revolutionize the system without informing people about what they were doing or how. Now, there is the Draft Bloomberg movement. Go to www.draftbloomberg.com, and there will not be anything for you to download to hand out to people. Go to www.uniteformike.com, and there is at least a downloadable flier, but there's also a "Collect Signatures" option that shows you links to other sites rather than a form to download and take with you to actually do what you thought you clicked on - collect signatures.

People, if you want these candidate to run or win, you are not doing a very good job of showing them proper support to get it done. If you have nothing to show people, a physical piece of paper at the very least, then you have nothing at all. A name and an email address is not going to go door-to-door for you, only people will. Step out from behind your computers, and interact with your fellow Americans, or stop wasting our time!