John Edwards and "The Web"

In writing about Senator John Edwards getting ready to announce his intent to run for POTUS from New Orleans tomorrow morning, NYT political columnist Adam Nagourney recognizes the force he calls "the web" - an innocuous and impersonal description of which actually consists a lot of real people and the power of those incredibly spirited, committed, and hard-working people who support Senator Edwards but do not have the deep pockets of the establishment "in-crowd".

Mr. Edwards, who is arguably the most Web-savvy candidate in the ’08 race to date, is using Thursday’s event to try to gin up his supporters via the Internet. He sent out an e-mail message earlier this week, saying he was on the verge of making a decision that his aides say has, in fact, already been made.

The decision of how to time the announcements also reflects the particular needs of the candidates.

For Mr. Edwards, there is clearly interest in trying to win attention after two months in which Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama dominated the coverage of the Democratic contest.

Winning attention is what it's all about in politics, as we all know. It's certainly not a mark of character defect or a political sin, unless it appears to be totally inauthentic.

In my opinion, when it comes to potential campaigners and supporters, it's a lot more respectful and credible for a candidate to try to "win attention" by appealing directly and personally to potential voters than to have his or her message delivered solely through the old media.

Much of what Senator Edwards'supporters have been doing has been done 'under the radar'. If he finds success in 2008, it will change the face of future presidential campaigns. The One America Committee, largely directed by Senator Edwards' technology advisor Ryan Montoya, has been the soul of a new and empowering engine created by technology wizards and driven by the grassroots.

I'm not sure how Adam knows this for a fact:

Mr. Edwards has been preparing for this moment since the second in 2004 when he knew he and Mr. Kerry had been defeated.

I've been following and covering Senator Edwards' political moves for a long time and I have never heard him verbalize anything like this. Perhaps it's just Adam's opinion, although he doesn't make it clear.

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John Edwards Announcement Tour: People Get Ready
Daily Kos

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Benny wants us to know that two North Carolinan CJs are live blogging from NOLA and have a picture of Senator Edwards working with some middle school kids in shelving debris out of someone’s yard in the Lower Ninth Ward.

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Robert Scoble quotes the same article and talks more about the progress of social media and how it's changing the face of political campaigns. And guess what? Robert says he'll be raising at least one glass in NOLA tomorrow!