Absorb What's Useful

By Alvin Singh

Reading this article I learned something about Joe Lieberman that I didn’t know. He is a good politician. Once Vice Presidential nominee and a long standing Democrat who fought for a race against Ned Lamont by the organization of blogs. Ted Pirch clearly explains the differences between what a political party can be defined as. One writer explained that it is a network of likeminded individuals that have a common purpose with traditional values who work to get officials elected in office. In this primary election between Lieberman and Lamont bloggers played a pivotal role in politics that provided more cases of how the internet was being used for political organizing.

The multi millionaire Lamont was able to fundraise based on the campaign finance laws of FECA and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that provided him a platform to pay for advertisements on the national popular blogs. In the beginning the strategy was to unite the supporters but this eventually changed to a climate of dissent toward Lieberman and his policies. Blogs like Dailykos.com posted pictures of the Senator from Connecticut at a dinner with Rush Limbaugh. Even though Lamont was a former supporter of Lieberman the bloggers developed a strategy to campaign him as a successful businessman who has grown upset over the incumbents personal attributes. By using the donations online Lamont proved that his run for office was stirred by the support of voters and not his own wallet. By giving his online supporters a measured of their donations this proved that although Lieberman had more money his was from outside conservative groups.

In conclusion I think this was a very insightful article that went into depth into the amount of support and organizing that can be done for political campaigns even during primaries. To run a successful and effective campaign a candidate has to have a clear presence online.