spinningroundthebeltway

I’ve always admired Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. I consider him to be among the nation’s most astute political analysts especially since his Crystal Ball has been rated as the most accurate election predictor (in the 2006 midterms, he had every Senate race right and foresaw the net gain of 29 seats for the Democrats in the House).So when he told the Politico that every year the conventions have been progressively less interesting since John F. Kennedy was nominated in 1960 (an affair that Normal Mailer captured and recounted brilliantly), I was inclined to believe him. And don’t get me wrong, I still do.

But I also believe this year is fundamentally different. The fact that today’s convention planners are capitalizing on the opportunity to incorporate new media technologies into the programs speaks to both parties’ recognition that passing these tools up leads to almost certain doom come the fall.

But those planning the Democrats’ get-together in Denver Aug. 25-28 and the GOP bash in St. Paul Aug. 31-Sept. 4 are responding with a barrage of technology — much of it related to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube or Ustream.TV, which focus on creating online communities of shared interests in which the parties hope to spread their message.

Now, of course the primary campaigns, whether they unintentionally gained visibility after some helpful flaunting and flirtation or got hounded on why knowing how to use a computer really does matter, were reminded in some way that they could no longer escape the new strategic environment of the digital age. But now we approach the conventions and we see a concerted effort to make the actual events a two-way conversation between each candidate and his supporters nationwide. This would represent a huge departure from the “televised propaganda shows” of yesteryear, as Sabato terms them.

Whether this will turn into a practical success is another matter. The conventions haven’t happened yet, and there is no precise metric that can measure just how much democratic participation will actually improve due to the aforementioned social media efforts. But that the DNC and RNC organizers are adapting to the impact of these technologies is newsworthy in itself. And surely it will be interesting to see the differences between precisely how each party fares, given all of the recent (and almost trendy) rhetoric about the “technology gap” between Obama and McCain.

Which seems to be real. Those who doubt that should look at what David All, a Republican web strategist, has to say about McCain’s failure 2 txt as a means 2 organize 4 “the right kind of change.”) And when Obama has 60,000+ followers on Twitter that can all be mobilized through text messaging, well, that should raise some eyebrows and concerns in *some* media consultant’s office *somewhere* in downtown DC.

It’s gearing up to be an interesting campaign season. 

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