For Candidates, Web Is Power And Poison

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Twenty-two? And he's sitting at home in front of a computer?

For Candidates, Web Is Power And Poison

For Candidates, Web Is Power And Poison
Clinton, in Particular, Draws Equal Parts Cash and Vitriol

By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 8, 2007; Page A01

Candidates use the Internet to generate buzz, draw grass-roots support and raise record amounts of money. But in the intense, round-the-clock world of online presidential campaigning, the good comes with the bad.

"The pool of negativity is much bigger, and it spreads virally," said Mindy Finn, chief online strategist for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's Republican presidential campaign. "The Web can be hateful."
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Still, Clinton has been the biggest target by far, attacked by the left because of her centrist positions and by the right for her association with President Bill Clinton. Her campaign doesn't directly address the online hostility and points to the $8 million she raised online last quarter. Peter Daou, her Internet director, wrote in an e-mail: "Our campaign welcomes the diversity of views and vigorous debate that takes place online." But maybe not what Stephen DeMaura, then a senior at American University and now head of the New Hampshire Republican Party, started a month before the anti-Clinton "1984" video. DeMaura, 22, called it "Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)," a play on the Facebook group "Barack Obama: (One Million Strong for Barack)," which has 392,000 members.

Or such Facebook groups as "ANTI Hillary Clinton for President '08," which has 65,000 members, and "Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich," which lists 20,000. DeMaura writes in the group's page: "Democrats, Republicans, and Independents can now unite behind a single cause -- that of ensuring Hillary Clinton is not elected President of the United States."

As of yesterday, DeMaura's group had 543,000 members, 10,000 more than the week before.
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