The battle to master new media becomes ever more intense

Last year, seven of the 16 major presidential contenders kicked off their campaigns online. Andrew Rasiej, a former Howard Dean adviser and founder of Personal Democracy Forum, a website and annual conference that explores the relationship between politics and technology, thinks the Internet will change not only campaigns, but also democracy itself. Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) has 1.3 million supporters on Facebook; Sen John McCain (R-AZ) has only about 200,000. Sen Obama is using Twitter, a social-networking and micro-blogging service featuring instant messaging. By signing up to Sen Obama's twitters, the campaign at once signs up to yours. This, says Mr Rasiej, proves that Sen Obama "understands the DNA of the Internet". Sen McCain frankly admits he doesn't. But this may not matter, says Patrick Ruffini, who worked on George Bush's 2004 run and is co-founder of The Next Right, an online hub for center-right activism. "What matters a lot are the tactics he employs." The Republicans are beginning to raise their game to compete with Sen Obama's skill.