Campaign Tech: Further adventures in political communication

Before the Bush Administration was fervently attempting to downplay and clarify Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s tacit endorsement of Barack Obama’s Iraq policy, they were inadvertently promoting the story to the Beltway media. Jake Tapper reports that a White House staffer intended to send an email directing attention to a Reuters story on al-Maliki’s statement to Der Spiegel to an internal distribution list. But a human error resulted in a White House email directing the attention of numerous journalists to a story they would prefer to see buried.

While the White House was trying to keep things quiet, the Republican National Platform Committee was trying to open things up. As previously reported by the Independent, both the Democrats and Republicans are soliciting input on their respective platforms from the general electorate, but only one party has Paulites.

Supporters of the former candidate have swamped the site with Paul videos and calls for eliminating the Federal Reserve and the privatization of currency.

But even the tech-savvy Ron Paul errs once in a while. Before he announced yesterday that he had booked the Target Center for his upcoming "Rally for the Republic," the website promoting the event said the venue was "to be announced." But a Google map provided a clue to big secret well before the announcement.

Libertarian candidate Sen. Bob Barr may share some policy opinions with the Paulites, but he’s also a throwback. Barr doesn’t need legions of on-line followers ready to jump into action in virtual and occasionally real world situations like Ron Paul. He also forgoes the staffers manning social networks found in the major parties. No, Bob Barr is the kind of politician that will take out his own humble Blackberry and twitter with his own two hands.