Declan McCullagh suggested yesterday that it was the offline efforts, not the online efforts that won the day in New Hampshire Tuesday:

"In other words, it was anything but high-tech. Sure, there were robo-calls and e-mail alerts, but, for the most part, the local events that convinced voters to pick Clinton and McCain could have been convened at any point in the last century."

While I agree with Declan's argument that face-to-face interaction between candidates and voters is essential, there are clearly ways that the internet can enhance the success of these interactions. For example, online organizing on Facebook and MySpace can increase the attendence at offline town meetings. Recall one of Barack Obama's first rallies at George Mason University. Using Facebook to drive attendance, more than 10,000 people showed up to here him speak. Of course, many would have learned of the event without the Internet, but it stands to reason that the use of Facebook "kicked it up a notch."

It's finally caucus day! MySpace crowns Barack Obama and Ron Paul the winners of its own primary; Barack Obama tops the Wu-Tang Clan on Eventful's Hottest Demands page; Chris Bowers experiences three epiphanies; Earfl lets you record a testimonial about your favorite candidate; Mike Huckabee is losing traction online, but Hillary Clinton is getting more and more blog mentions; Mitt Romney holds a tele-townhall with voters, makes it easy to robo-call; is Obama advertising on Drudge?; Mike Huckabee thanks bloggers for "doing the Lord's work"; a former SC governor messes up his Huckabee endorsement; and is a Chris Dodd thank-you video to the blogosphere his swan song?

The Web on the Candidates

A new site called QubeTV sees itself as a conservative alternative to YouTube. “It won’t be easy to compete against a giant like YouTube, but if enough conservatives embrace the idea, it could become the go-to place for conservative video on the Web,” said Robert Bluey, director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation. The site was started by two former aides to Ronald Reagan, Charlie Gerow and Jeff Lord. “Conservatives now have the opportunity to be in ‘Web 2.0’. Our goal is to make QubeTV the dominant social network site for anyone who is right-of-center and to have the best in online video, especially online video related to the campaign of 2008,” Gerow said. Check out Wonkette's snarky take on the site.

Two surveys have been released that show an increased reliance on the web for information related to the 2008 election. A Word of Mouth Marketing poll found that "Forty-two percent of Americans say they will get more pre-election information from the internet in 2008 than they did in 2004," and online ad network Burst Media found that one quarter of likely voters think the web is the best place to research the candidates, making it the most popular source of information for 2008. The Burst study also found that more than 20% of likely voters had visited a candidate's web site, and almost half would watch online video of a candidate.