I ran across this little course-change by Hillary Clinton's campaign in Ben Smith's always-useful blog. In the course of a coffee-stop in Durham, NH, Hillary Clinton said she'd been working all her life "to improve the lives of young people" and pledged "to make sure you have the tools you need to make the most out of your own lives."

Smith then notes:

Her campaign also just announced that it's going to allow Facebook users to ask her questions directly through Facebook, and that she'll respond in videos to the "Ask Hillary" feature.

Indeed, they have a form on their website where you can post a question and get an email letting you know when "you can tune back in for Hillary's answers to the top five questions." (No explanation on how exactly those questions will be picked.)

Well, well. Could it be that the Clintonites have finally realized that their one-sided approach to a "conversation" with potential voters, their unwillingness to engage people--especially young people--in the networks where they hang out online, indeed, their sneering at the young, had hurt them?

Don't forget, after all, how Clinton's top advisers Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn had disparaged the Facebook crowd in the weeks before the Iowa vote. "Our people look like caucus-goers, and his people look like they are 18," Grunwald said, adding: "Penn said they look like Facebook."

I guess it looks like Facebook votes. And the Clintonites have discovered this pretty late in the game.

I don't know how the election is going to turn out, but right now it's fair to note that the candidates with the strongest interactive campaigns--Huckabee and Obama in particular--are doing well in expanding the electorate and attracting unlikely voters to their side.