Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Google Politics Is Ron Paul another Howard Dean? What sets him apart from the other candidates, including YouTube superstar Barack Obama? How is Ron Paul so successful? The media has ignored Ron Paul's campaign because their polls told them to, but they have ignored Ron Paul's movement for lack of vision. What is significant about Ron Paul, google politics, and that is what I address in the article.by The Fugue, a.k.a. Russ Fugal
(libertarian)
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
googlev to search for information on the Internet, esp. using the Google search engine (Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7). Lexico Publishing Group, LLC)
Google "politics" and the top hits are CNN, NYTimes, Wikipedia, Yahoo News, Washington Post, MSNBC, CBSNews, FoxNews, LATimes, and ABCNews in that order.
google politicsn 1. the rising trend to go straight to the source through internet search engines, cutting through all the spin, pandering, half truths, personal attacks, and smears that have apatheized the majority of Americans to politics (www.nonprofitvote.org); 2. the role the internet plays in informing voters, as opposed to the traditional media of direct mail, newspaper, radio, and television. (My own definition)
Google politics is unique in internet politics. The internet has been used as a tool in political campaigning for almost a decade, but became a part of every candidate's arsenal after Howard Dean's success in 2004. Nowadays, every presidential candidate has a Donate Now link on their own personal website, and a few even have a progress meter like the familiar United Way thermometer. In my own state, Utah, Pete Ashdown used a wiki (an online document that can be altered by anyone) as a tool to shape his platform. But all this does not comprise google politics.
The shear volume of the internet makes google politics daunting. Google Inc.'s namesake is googol (the nickname of an unimaginably large number, ten duotrigintillion), in reference to the unimaginably large volume of information its search engine sorts through. But the rise of some popular venues has made google politics a little less intimidating, including Google News and YouTube.
For example, you can go to Google News (news.google.com) and find news articles on any subject or candidate sorted by popularity and relevance, or you can single out the most recent. Redundant articles are grouped together under one headline. Similarly, on YouTube (www.youtube.com) you can find videos on any subject; again, sorted by popularity an relevance.
YouTube has proved to be a powerful tool in google politics. A whole sub-site, YouChoose'08 (www.youtube.com/youchoose) is dedicated to videos of all the candidates. These videos are put out by the campaigns and independent supporters alike. Videos by detractors and watchdogs are also easy to find, as well as archives of debates and speeches. One particular YouTube contributer, CSPANJUNKIEdotORG, posts clips from CSPAN and CSPAN2, television stations dedicated to covering all the exciting political speeches and proceedings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.
Google politics has no editorial board, no preferred spin, no agenda. Any contributer worth his salt can get a story on "the front page." Google politics is interactive, informative, innovative, and sometimes even inspiring. Howard Dean rode the wave of internet campaigning because he embraced the internet. Today, someone is riding the wave of google politics because the internet has embraced him.
According to google politics, this nation's apathy is being cured. Google "cured apathy" and these are the top two headlines:
Ron Paul Cured My Apathy from the blog getoffthecouchandvote Dr. Ron Paul Cured Our Apathy, We Cured His Skepticism from dailypaul
Google "President 2008" and Ron Paul is the second candidate listed, right after actor Christopher Walken who announced his candidacy mid 2006 and hasn't said a word about it since. Mitt Romney comes in third, followed by Mike Gravel and General Zod. Web traffic for Ron Paul's website is head and shoulders above his closest competition (www.alexa.com).
Barack Obama is riding the internet wave as well. Obama videos are the most viewed of any candidate's on YouTube. His ad, Vote Different, while having over 4 million views is more anti-Hillary than pro-Obama (but an excellent example of effective marketing). The number one Obama video, a music video by Obama Girl, is admittedly BarelyPolitical. Don't be mistaken though, Paul does compete with Obama in YouTube views, despite Paul videos having more political substance and being far more abundant.
Obama is different than Paul in that his ascendancy cannot be attributed to google politics. He is a media darling, household name, and borderline celebrity. Obama is no more riding the google politics wave than is Oprah.
On the other hand, it seems that google politics is the only factor in Ron Paul's ascendancy, however grand or insignificant it is. Those who are fed up with contemporary high school rivalry politics and media infatuation with no substance are turning to google politics. Reportedly, those who have been politically apathetic their whole lives are also being turned on to google politics upon hearing slogans coined by their peers like Ron Paul cured my apathy, Who is Ron Paul?, Google Ron Paul, and Ron Paul Revolution.
Love him or hate him Ron Paul is no Barack Obama (celebrity) and no Howard Dean (the father of internet politics). The Ron Paul Revolution is a creation of google politics.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of The Fugue, a.k.a. Russ Fugal only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. The Fugue, a.k.a. Russ Fugal is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Interesting, informative, thought provoking. I especially appreciate the way you've distilled the difference between Obama and Paul for me. Glad to see you on Nolan Chart!
I wrote this as an op-ed for my local paper, the Salt Lake Tribune (with some minor improvements since I submitted it). Hopefully it will go to print on Sunday.
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