GOP's Secret Weapon

[Pryderi]

The G.O.P.'s Secret Weapon
You think the Republicans are sure to lose big in November? They aren't. Here's why things don't look so bad to them

<snip>
What Rove and Mehlman wanted to figure out was the code for increasing the number of Republican voters who could be reliably summoned to the polls--a code that, once cracked, could be used to win election after election. "We want to turn 75%-Republican areas into 78%- or 79%-Republican areas while at the same time turning 15% areas into 18% or 19% areas," says Mike DuHaime, political director of the R.N.C.

In the off year of 2001, the creators of the 72-Hour program tested it in odd, lower-profile contests, including court races in Pennsylvania. The Bushies picked clusters of precincts where they quietly tried their new methods, then compared those with similar precincts where the campaigns did things the more traditional way. Those experiments helped Republicans develop a handful of precepts that constitute the party's playbook for this fall:<snip>

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1541295,00.html

And, on a related note:


Sunday, Sep. 24, 2006
The Netroots Hit Their Limits
Liberal online activists are finding you can't move elections with just modems and IM
By BY PERRY BACON JR.

You've heard the story: the Netroots, the Democratic Party's equivalent of a punk garage band--edgy, loud and antiauthoritarian--are suddenly on the verge of the big time. The gang of liberal bloggers and online activists who helped raise millions of dollars for Howard Dean's presidential campaign two years ago are now said to be Democratic kingmakers. Last month in Connecticut, they fanned anti-incumbent and antiwar flames and were widely credited with the primary defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman, leading him to run as an independent. After they relentlessly derided Senator Hillary Clinton as calculating, overly cautious and lacking true liberal bona fides, she hired an adviser just to deal with them and even demanded that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resign. Coincidence? Moderate Democrats say it with remorse, conservatives with glee, but the conventional wisdom is bipartisan: progressive bloggers are pushing the Democratic Party so far to the left that it will have no chance of capturing the presidency in 2008.

Or maybe the Netroots aren't all that. Make no mistake, these online activists are having a profound impact on the Democrats and on politics in general. But the phenomenon is in its infancy. Compared with established interest groups like organized labor and conservative Christians, the Netroots play a small role in national politics. Even their most ardent players now recognize that you can't create a true movement using nothing but modems and instant messaging. "The Netroots cannot elect someone alone," says Matt Stoller, a blogger at the popular group site MyDD.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1538663,00.html

[Kolesar]

1. GOP is accessing your credit card info to see if you are a snowmobiler

"Other telltale signs of potential latent Republicanism are snowmobile ownership and enrollment in private schools."

[lapfog_1]

2. modems... who uses a modem??? I haven't used a modem

in at least 10 years. And then is was only a backup to my DSL. Now I have nationwide cellular
wireless as backup to the DSL which is backup to the cable.

Just keep thinking there isn't any danger from "netroots" Perry!

[Pryderi]

3. How is netroots going to increase voter turnout?