• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, June 24, 2008

When John McCain acknowledged earlier this month that he was "computer illiterate," it only confirmed to many in the blogosphere that the Republican presidential nominee was badly out of step with politics in the digital age.

At the Personal Democracy Forum in New York on Monday, Mark Soohoo, McCain's deputy e-campaign director, found himself on the defensive about the Republican nominee's admitted lack of basic tech know-how.

"It's a mistake to assume John McCain has no knowledge of this," said Soohoo, appearing on a panel with Internet strategists for several other 2008 presidential campaigns. "You don't necessarily have to use a computer to understand how it shapes society." The remark drew snickers from the audience of bloggers, Twitterers and Internet activists gathered for the conference.

The event featured Internet luminaries including Esther Dyson, Arianna Huffington, Robert Scoble and Clay Shirky.

Underlying Soohoo's defensive posture was the contrast between McCain's online campaign and that of his Democratic rival Barack Obama. Unlike the Arizona senator, Obama has made the Internet a hallmark of his campaign, especially by tapping into social networking technologies to build support and raise money.

Conference organizer and panel co-moderator Andrew Rasiej noted, for instance, that Obama last week hit 1 million "friends" on Facebook. As of Monday, McCain was approaching 152,000.

Peter Daou, Internet director for the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign, also highlighted Web 2.0 innovations such as MyBarackObama.com, allowing supporters to set up their own personalized pages through the Obama Web site. The campaign's online initiatives and use of social networking tools "will guide future campaigns," Daou said.

While acknowledging Obama's online achievements, Soohoo maintained that McCain will not necessarily use the same tactics because he is pursuing a different audience. "Just because he doesn't have as many Facebook supporters doesn't mean he doesn't have as many active supporters," he said.

McCain's competitive showing in recent polls shows he can be successful without necessarily challenging the Democratic candidate via social networks.

A recent analysis by political news site Politico.com estimated that Obama had reported spending $6.8 million so far on Web ads compared with $1.9 million for McCain.

Mindy Finn, a deputy Webmaster for the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004, said Republicans have become complacent about using the Internet as campaign tool. "The Bush campaign was very innovative in 2004," she said, referring to its use of online tools for organizing supporters and in online video.

More input will have to come from the grassroots to reinvigorate Republicans' enthusiasm for the Internet. "Campaigns are less powerful and less important and more power is actually with the people who supporting them in individual efforts," Finn said.

Democrats are outpacing Republicans in their level of political activity online from social networking to contributing money, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project released this month. More than one-third (36%) of Democrats have created social network profiles, compared with 28% of Independents and 21% of Republicans.

As Clinton begins to actively campaign on behalf of Obama this week, Daou was asked if the candidates would merge their e-mail lists of supporters. While privacy issues would keep them from taking that step, he said the Clinton campaign was sending "unity messages" to its supporters encouraging them to get behind Obama.