LOL:) Look who’s podcasting! No, it’s not your teenager. It’s your senator.
Veteran politicians more familiar with turntables and typewriters are enlisting twentysomething computer whiz kids to help them brave the digital world of blogs, podcasts and the Web as they look to connect directly with voters.
The 2004 presidential campaign ushered in Internet fundraising and the lightning-speed effectiveness of Web logs. The next campaign promises a significant increase in Web-based activities; politicians are responding to the reality.
Few are treating it with an LOL – laugh out loud – attitude. This is serious business.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., responds weekly to questions on his blog.
The former heart surgeon, who is considering a 2008 presidential bid, said he saw the power of podcasts when one in which he discussed avian flu was featured on a conservative blog and downloaded 1 million times.
John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee and a White House hopeful in 2008, recently showed off a newly designed website that features a reality television show that tracks him, up close and personal, as he goes around the country.
