Politics and Google Informatics

I'm surprised at this point how few candidates in the 2008 race have used the Google AdWord service, which allows SEOs to purchase keywords to direct potential supporters to the correct site. The Republicans, who would like to buy their support, seem to like the SEO strategy more than the Democrats, who prefer social networking abilities like Facebook, Eventful, Meetup, and Myspace. 2008 is going to be remembered as the YouTube election--and Google's YouVote is preparing for participatory campaign debates where users can send vlog-style video questions to candidates. And candidates will respond in real time. Social networking capabilities seem to be the best strategy since AdWord doesn't work with tools like Digg and various 2.0 platforms, but neither parties have a grasp on both concepts. Unlike the other Republican candidates, Ron Paul has "gone viral" as net phenomena. He is the most consistently libertarian candidate in either race. His ideas seem to upset every other Republican except for a small circle of unorganized liberalismes. His ideas hearken back to classical liberals like Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and yet the Republicans shun him for being opposed to the very un-liberal United States foreign policy. He's the only candidate who proposes abolishing the IRS, yet he's not invited to a Republican debate on tax reform. His presence all over the net is in fact a threat to the Republican establishment, and they feign disinterest while he has presented himself as a serious, competent candidate full of ideas. The media will follow the other Republicans, not Paul, and if he disappears they will assume no guilt. The net has taken up the responsibility of reporting news of high interest, like Ron Paul, to the millions of users who have become increasingly unsatisfied with mainstream media.