The Web, politics and public opinion

We are now in uncharted territory this campaigning season in more ways than one. Aside from the 'post-racial' folks under 35, there is the Internet. Very few have figured out exactly how it effects politics, nor are likely to until long after the results of November come in.

Still, there is some clear thinking out there on the topic. Read this one by Frank Rich in today's New York Times. His conclusion:

The 2008 campaign is, unsurprisingly enough, mostly of a piece with 2006, when Iraq cost Republicans the Congress. In that year’s signature race, a popular Senate incumbent, George Allen, was defeated by a war opponent in the former Confederate bastion of Virginia after being caught race-baiting in a video posted on the Web. Last week Mrs. Clinton learned the hard way that Iraq, racial gamesmanship and viral video can destroy a Democrat, too.