Web spielt im US-Wahlkampf herausragende Rolle

--- Wired News berichtet mal wieder über die Einbeziehung des Internet in die Präsidentschaftswahlkampagnen: This is the first presidential election where the Web is an extension of the war room. The Kerry and Bush campaigns are cribbing from Howard Dean's playbook on how to successfully use the Internet. Dean arranged Meetups. Kerry and Bush throw house parties. Dean's supporters set up blogs to promote their candidate. Kerry's website has a blog. The Bush site has a static version. Dean solicited donations on the Web. Kerry and Bush raise funds online. Dean raised more than $40 million through online donations in the months leading up to the Democratic primaries. Kerry topped that. In three months, he brought in almost $50 million from 400,000 online donations. (The average was $108.) Since locking up the Democratic nomination until mid-June, his campaign brought in more than $100 million. ... In comparison, Bush's campaign raised only $7.6 million from online donations. (The average was also around $100.) But his re-election effort didn't have to rely on the Internet as much. At the end of May, the latest available figures, it had collected $213.4 million. Auch die New York Times widmet sich heute den Online-Erfolgen Kerrys beim Geldeintreiben: Senator John Kerry collected more than $34 million in June, including $3 million raised online on Wednesday, setting a record for single-day Internet fund-raising and causing the campaign's computers to crash. "There wasn't even any significant political event," Michael Meehan, a Kerry spokesman, said of the record online donations. "A lot of people predicted a slowdown, but in fact we've grown it. It's like the Wild West."