PDF Live-Blogging: Presidential Campaigns - What Worked and What Didn't

Six of the major candidate's internet staff - Peter Daou (Clinton), Mindy Finn (Bush '04), Justine Lam (Ron Paul), Tracy Russo (Edwards), Joe Rospars (Obama) and Mark Soohoo (McCain) - are about to begin an ad-hoc panel about what worked and what didn't work online during the Presidential Primaries.

• Tracy Russo is answering a question about whether or not there was a split between the "Old Guard" and the Internet staff about whether to run the rapid-response "hair" video during the YouTube debate. Russo deflects the question. Guess we're not going to get a debate about how much the campaigns and consultant class "get it."
• Micah is asking about Obama being "stand-offish" to the blogs. Rospars disagrees with that characterization of the internet strategy. Points to 50-state strategy as evidence of support and cooperation with the grassroots. That doesn't really get to the question though since the "grassroots" and "netroots" overlap but are not always the same.
• Micah is pushing - calling out Obama's failure to embrace the blog the same way that Tracy and Peter did for the Edwards and Clinton campaigns. Rospars says that the relationships are there if under the table (within the communities). Tracy gives props to Sam Graham-Felsen, the Obama blogger for his work building a community by telling the stories of that community.
• Andrew Rasiej calls out the Right for a lack of similar online communities within their campaigns. Mark Soohoo replies that not all supporters are on the internet but they're trying to engage people online. Weird answer: the interwebs aren't all that important but we're reaching out anyway and it's good.
• Mindy Finn points out that GW utilized the web well in 2004. Says that the Right's falling behind is less about specific tactics than about the message. Andrew pushes back by pointing to Ron Paul. How can McCain replicate that and take advantage of what the internet can offer?
• Mindy Finn - it's not about the campaigns, it's about outside institutions and supporters working on behalf of those campaigns. The Right has become complacent online, but the GOP will catch up not through a campaign but by people building a movement outside the campaign.
• Andrew asks Justine Lamm about Ron Paul's money-bomb. Wants to know if the feedback loop they created by opening up the donation totals helped fuel the bomb and drive donations. Lamm agrees, but says that the sense of ownership Paul supporters had in the campaign through YouTube videos, forums, and other interactive, decentralized elements was equally important. One fed the other.
• Esther Dyson asks how will we use the internet to open up government and campaigns to listen to voters instead of talk at them and raise money?
• Daou says that the Clinton campaign was always listening and holding dialogue (their web chats, etc.). Says that all those messages went directly to Clinton and was put in her speeches. Strange because those conversations were derided as being incredibly top down and one-way and were mocked by much of the tech/politics sphere.
• Rospars says that the campaign was receiving so much feedback and commentary (between the staff and supporters) that they had to create their own internal set of online tools to manage it all.
• Sifry wants to know if those tools will become "permeable" so they are not so internal and closed off from supporters.

That's it for now. I'll have more later.