I wrote about how remarkable it is that a presidential candidate has found himself thrown into the wildest sort of Internet melee, which led to my blogging about how much is contained in a simple statement by Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s campaign manager, in his totally human comment on that fray.

So, now it’s been continued on my own discussion board. Ken Camp criticizes Dean for “walking the fence” on issues. “All I really want is for him to stand up and say something.” Seems like an odd complaint addressed to Howard Dean. In any case, Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s campaign manager, has responded. He says, in part:

The easiest thing in the world would have been to tell people on the Lessig blog exactly what they wanted to hear — so I think your criticism of playing the Internet audience is a little off-base. We really were and are trying to open a dialog to help us formulate our policies as we move forward — and to do it from the bottom up.

Ken replies. But I think he’s missing the bigger point: Whether you agree with Ken that Dean’s blogging at Lessig’s site should have had more detailed proposals (and, fwiw, I do not agree) this has never happened before. Here’s what’s new or at least unusual:

A first-tier — even front-running — presidential candidate has written his own stuff and posted it for the world to see with no focus groups and little or no staff review.

The candidate did not pretend to know more than he does and did not rely on the in-depth knowledge available to him via the policy folks on his campaign staff. He instead asked his readers for help understanding the issues.

A completely open discussion was enabled for the world to see, with no filtering to exclude crazies, political opponents and political operatives.

The candidate and his campaign manager read and responded to that open discussion.

The conversation is now spilling over onto other sites.

Before this, what would you have had to do to get the ear of a potential president of the United States? You could have a column in a national newspaper or you could get a hernia toting sacks of cash to the campaign headquarters.

Can we at least pause for a moment of delight before we become blasé?

Categories: Uncategorized dw