August 1st, 2007
Trippi returns as Edwards adopts a massively Internet campaign
Joe Trippi — the preeminent name in Internet electioneering — is back from the desert he occupied when Howard Dean fired him as campaign manager. The New York Times reports that Trippi has slowly moved into center circle of John Edwards’ campaign, displacing traditional advisors Edwards relied on in 2004 and earlier this year.
Over the past month, Mr. Trippi has brought two of his associates from his last job — as a media consultant to a union-financed and highly effective Web-driven campaign against Wal-Mart — to manage communications and political organizing for Mr. Edwards. With the express approval and urging of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, they have taken steps like using the Edwards Web site to gather signatures for a petition demanding the impeachment of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales while urging Mr. Edwards to press his tough-edged populist message even harder.
These days the Edwards campaign has taken on the appearance of Dean 2.0, and listening to Mr. Edwards is often akin to reading the postings on an angry blog.
By the Times’ account, it is Elizabeth Edwards, more so than the candidate, that has smoothed the way for Trippi’s resurgence and the near-total commitment to an Internet campaign.
“It was — it is — a more traditional campaign than the Dean campaign. The one thing is in a strange way, Edwards and Elizabeth — Elizabeth in particular, but Edwards, too — get it that the old way doesn’t work. That you need to use the Internet, blogs, technology, YouTube, to reach out to people.”
“She’s much more into it than he is, but he gets it in a way that Howard didn’t,” Mr. Trippi said. “I mean Howard got it, but he didn’t get into it. You would never get a call from him saying: ‘Should I call Ann Coulter? Or should I blog on this today?’ What I’m trying to say is she and John think about it more.”
The move represents the Edwards’ campaign’s realization that they could not compete in the traditional media world in which the only story is Obama versus Clinton.
“We’re in a different world than last time, with two big celebrity candidates,” said Jonathan Prince, who is also a senior campaign adviser and one of the few holdovers from the 2004 campaign. “And we have the message that is most change-oriented and empowering. So we both need to use the channel to reach people and should be using the channel that’s the most empowering thing out there.”
The Times appears to be duly impressed by the campaign’s Internet effort. As Clinton and Obama try to knock each other off, Edwards’ online visibility might allow him to sneak in, unscathed, able to appeal both to progressive and Southern voters and centrally positioned for the general election.
As Mr. Edwards’s aides said, it is critical that he not throw out the best of the old in his search to harness the passion and money that can be raised through the Internet. And of course, Dean 1.0 did not take Mr. Dean even through Iowa.
But Mr. Edwards is not Mr. Dean. And the Internet is an entirely different force today from what it was when Mr. Trippi and Mr. Edwards ran their last campaigns.
