The Duck - The more

The Duck - The more I think about it, the more it feels like the Moovies and Howard "Duck" Dean's supporters have gotten it wrong.

Yeah, Dean raised a lot of money on the Internat. So did Ralph Nader in '00 (allowing for the web's relatively lesser maturity and the Green Party's outsider status at the time). I'd suspect there's a fair chunk of the far-left base - the Green Bus crowd - that doesn't attend $1000/plate black tie rubber chicken dinners, and wants to support someone who fits their worldview; when they have a portal like MoveOn spoon-fed to them, it's their opportunity.

Also - let's not forget the simple fact that when it comes to using the internet for communication and organization, the right was here first. As long-time "Shot In The Dark" reader JP, from California, noted in an email today:

Yes, a lot of conservatives voted for Howard the Duck. In fact, for days Hugh Hewitt was pumping his listeners to go to MoveOn.org and vote for Dean.

Indeed. This was before I listened to Hewitt very much (today, the 5-8 time slot is an embarassment of conservative talk-radio riches; Hewitt and Lewis are both great), but Hewitt is as plugged-in to the ways of the Web as anyone in radio (yet).

Many of the Moovies are newbies to this game; most of us conservatives on the web have been reading Drudge since '97 at least, and have many years' head start at using - and abusing - the web.

It'll be fun to watch how the "Dean Rules the 'Net" story develops.

Posted by Mitch at July 24, 2003 08:54 AM