Tuesday, May 22, 2007

When David All, a former Republican congressional aide, launched a blog recently that he hopes will spur his fellow Republicans to bridge the digital divide, he did his best to sound upbeat. "Today our Revolution begins," he wrote. "Tomorrow we fight."

But implicit in his cheerleading was the acknowledgment that there is a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans on the Internet, and that his party will have to scramble to catch up. "For the most part Republicans are stuck in Internet circa 2000," he said in an interview.

Another Republican -- Michael Turk, who was in charge of Internet strategy for President Bush's 2004 campaign -- puts the problem his party faces more bluntly: "We're losing the Web right now."

Says John Linder, member of the House GOP Steering Committee:

"I really don't pay much attention to blogs," he said. "You can say anything on those blogs without any attribution and get away with it."

Liberal blogs have been influential, the Georgia lawmaker acknowledged. But he dismissed their conservative counterparts, saying, "I don't pay any attention to them."

Blogs....Not Just for Words. Taking Campaign Blogs to The Next Level

So some of us are a little more on the visual side of the spectrum when it comes to learning and connecting. Not a bad thing. JibJab served it's purpose for the last couple of election cycles but it was bi-patisian and entertained more than shaped the debate. So where am I going with this? Well, the GOP bloggers of this next cycle need to research and find out how we can start to shape the debate by adding fresh commentary that is presented in a sharp and pointed way and use video to drive that message home.

I am hoping this first installment of the Gadget Corner here on techRepublican can motivate those of you with blogs to look into adding this feature and in the future we can lead the way in getting this tactic into the mainstream of GOP campaign. Lets break the ground now and form a template of what works and give future web friendly consultants a jumping off place to begin their own efforts in the furture.