bytes and ballots

I've now had a chance to recover from the election, and am catching up on some stuff that accumulated in the past two weeks. One is an interesting article by Michael Cornfield, "The Internet and Politics: No Revolution, Yet." His conclusions are interesting:

Looking ahead, it's clear that the Internet's role in politics will continue evolving as the technology improves and users continuously adapt it for new purposes. And someday, the iconic internet president may emerge, dominating the medium like FDR did with radio and JFK and Ronald Reagan did with television.

But thus far, the most compelling narrative about the internet's political is not about candidates' skill with new media. Rather, it centers on stories from the grassroots: activists' use of email and Web sites; small donors' contributions online; bloggers' passion to tell stories and debate issues; and amateur videographers' quest to record "gotcha" moments. Perhaps that is the most fitting contribution this technology can endow to democracy.