Super Web site helps Dean surge ahead
By Alan M. Webber
Every four years, the presidential primary season features an intrepid outsider who seeks to overthrow the powers that be and win the nomination. The history books are filled with the stories of worthy challengers, both successful and not. This time, former Vermont governor Howard Dean is playing the part. The latest polls show him in the lead in both the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary next month.
Dean's candidacy combines a number of attributes that have marked outsiders of the past: a long-shot politician from a small state who is not a party favorite and has little or no Washington experience. Think Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton.
But Dean's run isn't causing talk simply because of his skills as a politician. On the campaign trail he has made his share of mistakes. One example is his appeal to Southerners driving pickups with Confederate decals. And many non-Web traditionalists believe he is too liberal to win the presidency.
What's getting the buzz is his powerful use of the Web. Indeed, it wouldn't be entirely wrong to say the Web has made Dean's campaign what it is today -- and left his Democratic rivals scratching their heads. The question they all seem stuck on is: Why can Dean use the Web this way and we can't?
The Web has helped Dean raise a remarkable amount of money from a genuinely grassroots effort. In fact, last month he announced that he is doing so well that he will skip public financing, which frees him from spending limits. The Web also has let him tap individuals who were previously uninvolved in politics, and has given him a nationwide following that first formed as a virtual organization.
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Dean ''gets it'' because he understands that campaigns -- Web-based or otherwise -- mirror most Americans' everyday lives: They're a mix of careful planning and unpredictability. His advantage over opponents is that he understands the strongest, best-prepared candidate will be the one who acknowledges this central fact, then builds a campaign that is fast, fluid and flexible -- like the Web itself. Thanks mostly to three rules of the Web, Dean for now has left his competitors in the virtual dust:
* Web rule No. 1: Authenticity can't be faked. It's a rule that established companies learned in the Web's early days. Dowdy old enterprises looked foolish when they tried to dress up in hip clothes. The same rule applies to politics and politicians. The way a candidate's Web site looks, feels and performs is like sodium pentothal: Its design and performance reveal a candidate's true character.
That's a huge advantage for Dean. As an insurgent, his first and most powerful message is, ''I'm not like those other guys. I'm going to give it to you straight.'' By taking that message to the Web, Dean's campaign reinforces the candidate's core identity.
Established candidates who try to mimic Dean's Web performance are not only doomed to fail, but also certain to make the difference between the real thing and the imitator painfully evident.
* Web rule No. 2: The message must fit the medium and the messenger. Because the Web has emerged as a powerful medium, it's easy to forget how young it really is. It was only eight years ago that Netscape went public and the Web began to enter the general public's consciousness. For most Americans, the Web is still somewhat exotic: You might want to visit, shop or e-mail. But you certainly wouldn't want to live there, much less organize a campaign for president on it. It's where guerrilla marketers go, where bloggers -- people who post personal Web logs -- share their views.
That, however, makes it a perfect fit for Dean's message and for Dean as a candidate. Dean's message is all about change: changing the direction of the country, changing the leadership in Washington, changing the way American political decisions are made. His campaign is about involving people who either have given up on politics or never showed any interest before. In other words, his campaign is uniquely suited to the kind of people who are comfortable on the Web. It speaks to people who seek out change, and does so in their own language and through their own medium.
The result is a campaign that feels youthful and vital, that exudes a sense of openness, almost brashness -- some of the qualities that Dean seems to embody as a candidate. It's also a campaign that has a freshness and spontaneity, attributes that often are missing from the canned performances that dull most political operations.
* Web rule No. 3: The Web belongs to everyone. It's one of the central tenets of the Web. No one of us is as smart as all of us. By giving bloggers the freedom to chronicle his campaign, shape the debate and participate in the conversation, Dean has embraced a fundamental fact of life in the 21st century: Control is an illusion.
Most traditional candidates find this posture uncomfortable to consider and impossible to accept. This is particularly the case for candidates who've spent the bulk of their political lives operating in the bubble that is Washington. The Beltway acts as an insulator against reality. It gives politicians the illusion of control, largely because of the deference most members of Congress are paid by their staff, lobbyists and the steady stream of supplicants seeking their favor. D.C.-centric candidates forget how to speak good, old-fashioned American. They go out to encounter voters and end up giving canned Senate floor speeches. No wonder it's hard for such candidates to connect with America's voters: It's as though they're speaking a foreign language.
But Dean's Web site, like his status as a governor from a small state, inoculates him from that disease. Much of the campaign's discussion, if not its direction, is in the hands of bloggers -- i.e., ordinary voters, common citizens. Their thoughts and ideas, their dreams and aspirations become the discussion threads that organize the Dean campaign.
The fact Dean is comfortable with this arrangement gives him a kind of credibility that politicians can't earn through speeches. It says to his supporters -- and those still considering candidates -- that he's one of us, not one of them.
Of course, Dean's campaign still has a long way to go. But this much is clear: Whether or not he ever gets to write a presidential inaugural address, he already has rewritten the rules of campaigning.
Alan M. Webber is founding editor of Fast Company magazine and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
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