techPresident - Note to GOP: Websites Still Matter - Comments

It would seem...

aliakbar — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:19:32 -0400

Hmmm. Some bloggers tend to spout whatever they want. It's unfortunate that one of the large leaders did so only paying attention to his own blog as for statistical data.

Anyone notice that Ron Paul won on his site's poll. I suppose with that logic Ron Paul should pick up on his site and be pronounced the winner of the nomination since PF's site is the end of all data.

Thanks for posting the truth Connell Donatelli. Truth goes a long way for a blogger. An apology and admission faulty analysis will go far as well.

Ali A. Akbar
eConservative.org

McCain Search Ads

EricFrenchman — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:44:27 -0400

Patrick,

I'm sorry you are disappointed that there are not any John McCain ads running on your blog any more. I can assure you that at this time we have neither excluded your site or slowed down in any way our spending with Google. Google must have determined that your blog was no longer relevant to our ad campaign or other advertisers are outbidding us for your premier traffic.

Eric Frenchman
Chief Internet Strategist
Connell Donatelli

experience counts

Freedomfighter — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:59:44 -0400

I am sorry but it is way too early to even take notice of what is happening in the presidential race. Currently, there is a bunch of bug-eye activists flaming the politics. It is not just the anti-war movement or anti-amnesty crowd. The latest immigration bill was attacked by libertarians for because of the creation of a national ID.

When the election comes closer, the average person is going to start really weighing there thoughts. Does anyone really think a withdrawal from Iraq will result in peace? Does it matter if the Democrats are going to raise taxes? The Democrats talk about putting more taxes on the rich but how about removing taxes from the poor?

With Obama and Ron Paul skyrocketing on the internet, you have to wonder what the real public thinks. Ron Paul is Republican who opposes the Iraq war in total, but how many opponents of the Iraq war even know who he is?

Romney may be a Mormon but he is not black and is not a woman. Is that a liability or an advantage? Who knows.

Note to GOP: Websites Still Matter

Patrick Ruffini — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:11:04 -0400

When critics point to the Republican Party's problems online, my response is that our problems aren't online. Our problems are offline, in a cranky base, in a reluctance to truly motivate and inspire cause-oriented Republican voters, and in the fact that we are in power in the midst of an unpopular war. Many of these apparent problems go away or get a lot better once we unify against Hillary as the nominee. If this were simply a contest of Web sites and technology -- GeorgeWBush.com vs. JohnKerry.com in 2004, GOP.com vs. Democrats.org, Voter Vault vs. Demzilla, microtargeting vs. what exactly? -- Republicans would win hands down.

Or at least, that seems to have been the case until now.

I've worked with enough of the developers and tech visionaries on the Republican side to know that the talent to build great online experiences, ones that connect you directly with your voters, exists in abundance. But recently, this approach has lost ground to a theory that the best way to communicate with your base is through third parties like bloggers and social networks. That means Republicans are far out front on things like blogger conference calls, hashing out legislation on Red State, and Twittering. And they're quietly losing ground on the basics of online campaigning: e-mail lists, Web development, and video.