Hating Hillary on the Web

Washington Post:

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Sites such as StopHerNow.com and AgainstHillary.com, funded by conservatives who have followed her political career since the 1990s, are easily searchable on Google. Unflattering online videos, including the "mash-up" page that portrayed the Democratic front-runner as an Orwellian Big Brother, are heavily viewed on YouTube. And Facebook, the online sociopolitical hub of the moment, is the unofficial capital of anti-Clinton country: One group, Stop Hillary Clinton, has more than half a million members, compared with the nearly 51,000 who have signed up as supporters on her Facebook profile. It's the largest group on Facebook against a candidate.

In many ways, the Web is more effective than television advertising and direct mail, the traditional methods campaigns and independent groups have used to try to define their opponents, political analysts say. It's cheaper, and it spreads information more quickly. But so far, anyway, its potential for affecting a presidential campaign is relatively untested.

"Imagine if the Swift Boat group posted their ad on YouTube before airing it on TV," said Victor Kamber, author of "Poison Politics: Are Negative Campaigns Destroying Democracy?" "With the enthusiasm that these campaigns are drawing right now, it'll be easy to find supporters who can spread whatever they want to spread -- and make sure that their fingertips are not on it."

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The story talks about other candidates with negative campaign spots on them, but Hillary appears to be one of the prime targets. As for the Swift Boat ad, I think I first saw it on the web. The web actually takes away some of the advantage the Democrats traditionally have in negative campaigning. They have always had the media to carry water for them and to protect them. Kerry even thought that it could protect him from the Swift Boat ads and they did their best to discredit them, but the ads were just to honest and accurate to be disregarded. The media nibbled at the edges and quibbled over some none material facts, but it never could destroy the essence of what the ads were saying, because the bloggers and alternative media on Talk Radio saw through their efforts.

There is a target rich environment for finding negative information on Hillary, but you will have to find most of it on the web and Talk Radio. The main stream media will dig for negatives on Rudy and will also dig to protect Hillary and Democrats. That is the field we have to play on and the web and Talk Radio have leveled it some since the Goldwater campaign.