Edwards’s Campaign Tries to Harness Internet: "At the vanguard" is Joe Trippi

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Edwards’s Campaign Tries to Harness Internet
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: August 1, 2007


(Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times)
Joe Trippi, a senior campaign adviser for John Edwards who champions the power of the Web, talked to reporters after the CNN and YouTube Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, S.C., on July 23.

WASHINGTON, July 31 — Most presidential campaigns mark their progress by how they are doing in the polls and how much money they are raising.

John Edwards’s campaign has another barometer of success: a 90-day calendar that tracks, in a jumble of red, green and black numbers, the spikes and dips in traffic to the campaign’s Web site. The calendar is taped on the wall of Joe Trippi, a senior campaign adviser, who can connect each spike to some effort to stir voters, including the video Mr. Edwards showed at a Democratic debate mocking the media for writing about his $400 haircut, and the time Elizabeth Edwards confronted the conservative commentator Ann Coulter on television.

After running a decidedly traditional race for the White House in 2004 and in the early stages of this contest, Mr. Edwards has quietly overhauled his campaign with one central goal: to harness the Internet and the political energy that liberal Democrats are sending coursing through it. In a slow but striking power shift, advisers who champion the political power of the Web have eclipsed the coterie of advisers who long dominated Mr. Edwards’s inner circle, both reflecting and intensifying his transformation into a more populist, aggressive candidate....

At the vanguard of the change is Mr. Trippi, something of a celebrity in the Democratic Internet world after managing Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign. Mr. Trippi — who left Mr. Dean’s collapsing campaign in a storm of recriminations — has returned for an unexpected Round 2 at the urging of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, breaking a vow Mr. Trippi says he made to himself not to return to presidential politics.

His role has been to help Mr. Edwards find ways to connect his message to the party’s liberal base in a campaign in which the traditional media channels have been clogged with news about Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, his two main Democratic rivals. The populist message that Mr. Edwards offered with a sunny face to living rooms of Iowans in 2004 is this time offered with indignation and anger, replete with us-against-them attacks on President Bush, establishment Washington, the wealthy and the news media. And his campaign is methodically pitching it on the Web....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/us/politics/01edwards.html?hp

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I can see why the Edwards supporters are so upset

I would be too. Edwards has to always find new ways to try and get his message across and it's been a frustrating campaign for him.
I know many are taking their anger out on Obama and us who support him but, he has nothing to do with it.
The media insists on ignoring Edwards to the point where he has to try to get the netroots to unite for him.

[PoconoPragmatist]

2. The Media Insists On Ingnoring Edwards

BECAUSE THEY KNOW AN EDWARDS PRESIDENCY WOULD BE FUCKING DISASTROUS TO THEIR AGENDA...AND THE AGENDA OF CORPORATE AMERICA...AND A BIG WIN FOR WE THE PEOPLE!!

Edwards/Moore '08

P.S. Hate to say, but Hillary sure isn't the answer, unless you want M.O.T.S. - and it is looking more and more like Obama will be that, too. In other words...fucking sold out to big business, and screw the workers again!

EDWARDS cares about us!!

[FrenchieCat]

3. All I can say to Edwards supporters is "welcome to the Club"......

Cause Clark supporters know very, very well what it is like to have your candidate ignored.....even when the candidate running is a 4 star southern Rhodes Scholar who is telegenic as hell, clear and outspoken, was right on the war, and who was a rags to success story and running to replace a dumbass whose was also a chickenhawk and incompetent warmonger. Yes, Edwards supporters....it ain't fun, and it ain't easy....and it is maddening and totally frustrating, and the media really is the powerhouse who decides........and I'm not sure that this will be the year that they will be overtaken; they are good at this game of politics, it appears.

What I do remember is when many Clark supporters were complaining, didn't seem like any of the other candidate supporters believed us, or gave a shit. We also stated that Clark was Bush's worst nightmare; and the nightmare never happened. I remember pointing fact to support my conspiracy theory, and posters rolled their eyes.

I remember posting stuff showing that although Clark had been running second only to Dean, there was only one frontrunner that year. It wasn't until the run up to Iowa, that "others" were reported on; none were Wes Clark though!

"AND THEN THERE WERE TWO"
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/02/04/primaries/index.html
Kerry breaks into the open field, with Edwards still in pursuit -- while the Dean meteor continues to burn out.

February 4, 2004 | After a month of surprise, confusion and tumult, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is, suddenly, much more clear: The nomination is John Kerry's to lose.

John Edwards won in South Carolina Tuesday, and he made a strong showing in an Oklahoma race that was too close to call even after all the votes were in. But Kerry, the liberal senator from Massachusetts, took the bellwether state of Missouri by a commanding margin over Edwards. In addition, he won in Delaware, North Dakota, New Mexico, Arizona, placed a strong second in South Carolina and was running strong in Oklahoma.
snip
Edwards staffers tried to make the best of their one victory, casting the race from here on out as a two-man contest. But Kerry, already in Seattle, delivered a front-runner's speech aimed at the Republican incumbent.
snip
Make no mistake -- the race is not over. The weeks ahead may demonstrate again the deep cultural and political disagreements that define the nation, and the Democratic Party. It appears, for now, that Edwards and perhaps Dean will be able to exploit that. Edwards' best hope is to peel off the South; Dean, fighting a guerrilla action, might hope to lock up the Left Coast with wins in Washington on Saturday and in California on March 2. (Oregon doesn't vote until May 18.)

---------------
(at the time of the article above; Clark had beaten Edwards in New Hampshire, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Arizona, and New Mexico - While Edwards had only beaten Clark in South Carolina, Delaware and Missouri - Clark was not in Iowa....and Clark was not mentioned in the news at all!)

By the time Virginia and Tennessee voters went to vote on February 11th, Edwards media had inudated those two states, while Clark only got media for a speeding ticket his caravan was stopped for!

Here's was Clark's press on 2/4/06- Article titled, "Clark lives to fight another day" - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/04/politics/main597997.shtml
The article is slanted to portray Wes Clark as barely holding on....although again, I stress, Clark had actually outdone Edwards in reference to whom bested whom.

The media does what it wants, and in this case, they had already decided that it would be Edwards and Kerry, no matter what. Clark actually surprised the press.....who had to work hard to keep Clark invisible. It worked....and then Kerry and Edwards went on to defeat in the GE.

Here's some media research done by a very reputable outfit directly after the Iowa primaries, and discusses media coverage of the contestants.

NETWORKS ANOINTED KERRY, EDWARDS BEFORE IOWA DID
Study: Iowa Caucus Victors Received 98 Percent Positive Coverage
WASHINGTON, DC—Prior to their surprising Iowa caucus performances, 98 percent of the network evening news coverage of Democratic Presidential candidates John Kerry and John Edwards was positive, according to research conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA). The study also found Howard Dean received more critical coverage over the same time period, at 58 percent positive.


This is CMPA’s second ElectionWatch report of Campaign 2004. ElectionWatch will provide regular updates of how the broadcast networks are covering the candidates, the issues and the campaign. This report examines the 91 stories broadcast on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news from January 1st through January 18th, the night before the Iowa caucus.

OTHER MAJOR FINDINGS:

Golden Boys Get Midas Touch-Not one person quoted by the networks had anything critical to say about North Carolina Senator John Edwards (100 percent favorable coverage) in the two and half weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus, while 96 percent of the evaluations of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry were positive.
http://www.cmpa.com/pressReleases/NetworksAnointedKerryEdwards.htm

Just sayin' :shrug:

[draft_mario_cuomo]

4. Do we really need another thread to rehash Clark vs. Edwards from 3 1/2 years ago?

I wasn't at DU at the time. When will those Clark and Edwards supporters who were here get over the 2004 primaries? It is August of 2007. Both are good Democrats. Both lost in 2004. Move on.

[FrenchieCat]

5. So you missed my point made about the media, hey?

Hard to hear and learn from the lessons others suffered by to improve on things, if you've got your fingers in your ears....I'd say!