Featured Buzz
"If I had to boil down what has really happened in the election cycle, it is [that] you are finally seeing the real fruition of the full power of … the Internet on politics,” says Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, a Democratic group that studies campaign tactics and technology.
"The First 21st-Century Campaign," National Journal, April 19, 2008
“What’s amazing,” says Peter Leyden of the New Politics Institute, “is that Hillary built the best campaign that has ever been done in Democratic politics on the old model—she raised more money than anyone before her, she locked down all the party stalwarts, she assembled an all-star team of consultants, and she really mastered this top-down, command-and-control type of outfit. And yet, she’s getting beaten by this political start-up that is essentially a totally different model of the new politics.”
"The Amazing Money Machine," The Atlantic Monthly, June 1, 2008
Over the past year, the Obama campaign has quietly worked to integrate the online technologies that fueled the rise of Howard Dean —as well as social-networking and video tools that didn't even exist in 2004 — with the kind of neighbor-to-neighbor movement-building that Obama learned as a young organizer on the streets of Chicago. "That's the magic of what they've done," says Simon Rosenberg, president of the Democratic think tank NDN. "They've married the incredibly powerful online community they built with real on-the-ground field operations. We've never seen anything like this before in American political history."
"The Machinery of Hope," Rolling Stone, March 20th, 2008
Click on the image below to watch the video.
"NDN Discussion of the Uncharted Terrain of Campaign 2008," C-Span, February 20th, 2008
"The Web called it early," declared Peter Leyden, head of the New Politics Institute, a liberal think-tank analyzing the Internet's impact on politics.
It was nearing 12:30 a.m. at the Google-sponsored party in Charleston, S.C., just hours after the CNN/YouTube debate. This was in late July, during those dog days of summer when Sen. Hillary Clinton was branded by pundits as the favorite for the Democratic nomination. A "flawless campaign," they said of her "tightly disciplined" machine. To Leyden, however, Sen. Barack Obama had the edge -- the Web was saying so. Go on MySpace and Facebook, type "Obama" on YouTube, look at the money he's raising on the Internet, check out the traffic on the increasing traffic on his site, Leyden instructed. There was not much of a contest on the Web. Voters flocked to Obama.
But what about Howard Dean? Dean, the darling of the Web, eventually lost the nomination to Sen. John Kerry.
"Obama is not Dean," Leyden said, "and 2004 is not 2008."
"How the Web Predicted the Real Thing," Washington Post, May 8, 2008
“The need for money is probably going to reach some diminishing return, and it’s probably going to be a pretty low ceiling, compared to past campaigns,” predicts Peter Leyden, president of the left-leaning New Politics Institute. In other words, the emerging high-tech marketplace may yet bring us closer to what decades of federal campaign regulations have failed to achieve: a day when candidates can afford to spend less time obsessing over the constant need for cash and more time concerned with the currency of their ideas.
"The Post-Money Era," New York Times, April 29, 2007
About the Buzz:
Since the New Politics Institute (NPI) began in May of 2005 we have held a number of public forums in Washington DC and have put out a series of reports, surveys and white papers. Our work has been picked up in the national and local media, as well as made its way around the web and the blogosphere. Our staff and fellows have been used as a resource for journalists trying help the public understand the changes in politics.
Below are excerpts from various web and traditional media outlets that reference our work or draw off members of our network. They are currently organized with the most recent at the top.
Others suggested McCain's party may have erected too many obstacles for him to overcome with Hispanics.
"To me, the decision for the Republicans to demonize immigrants has been one of the greatest strategic mistakes of a political party in modern times," said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist.
"It's putting the Republican Party on the wrong side of what is one of the defining demographic changes in 21st-century America."
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida all have a significant number of Hispanic voters. President Bush narrowly won all four states in 2004, and they could all be hotly contested this year.
"When you look at the battleground states, at least four of them are very heavily Hispanic," said Simon Rosenberg, head of a think tank called NDN, formerly the New Democrat Network. "We will see more (campaign) media heaped on Hispanic voters than at any time in American history."...
"Just looking at the demographics, whichever party ends up winning the Latino vote will be the majority party in the 21st century," Rosenberg said.
With Latinos appearing key to the respective general election strategies of both John McCain and Barack Obama, experts say spending on Spanish-language media is set to shatter the previous record of nearly $9 million, the overall number achieved by both parties and outside groups during the 2004 race between President Bush and John Kerry.
"The spending is going to be unprecedented," said Simon Rosenberg of NDN, a liberal group that itself spent over $2 million in Spanish-language ads in 2004.
That does not sit well with Andres Ramirez, who is a strong Obama supporter.
“Today McCain failed me,” said Ramirez, the vice president of Hispanic programs at the New Democratic Network, which, he stated, worked with McCain and Kennedy on the immigration legislation.
“He has been talking about border enforcement first and comprehensive immigration, those are not the same thing. I was hoping he would clear that up. Today he mentioned both and he was not very clear.”
He added that Obama is receiving a lot of support from Hispanics because they are upset at Republicans over immigration and the state of the economy. But it is far from a slam-dunk for the Democrat.
“Obama can’t take that [support] for granted,” Ramirez said. “He has to be able to deliver and show Hispanics that he has earned his support.”
