The other presidential candidates not so much. Powerline, arguably the most influential of all conservative blogs, has started a forum for presidential candidates to allow candidates to communicate with voters. As teased by powerline:
We wanted to create a space where the Republican presidential candidates can interact with some of the most passionate and knowledgeable conservatives anywhere
Unfortunately, every candidate in the forum except Romney took the forum as an opportunity for some guy from their campaign to paste an item from their own website, or something of that nature. Only Romney decided to use the forum to actually communicate something in a way that was different than the typical campaign. I throw Thompson into the mix of the candidates who "get it" because he's been using the internet for the last two months to create a buzz around himself and to communicate directly to voters.
The internet is not the end all to campaign by any means. But it is becoming increasingly important. In the primary campaign, it's importance will be magnified. Candidates who take wonderful opportunities like that provided by Powerline and squander them leave me shaking my head. I've got a lot of problems with Romney (which I will detail at some point) but he scored first on this one.
Which Thompson did you mean?
Fred Thompson: quite a guy.