I almost never look at Chuck Todd’s First Read but today, I did. And it cracked me up. Discussing the teabagging rallies that are going on today, they tried to come up with a positive angle.
With its association with these “tea party” protests, the Republican Party does stand to gain here in a mechanical/process way. If it gets a huge turnout nationwide, it will be a bit of a test run for its social networking apparatus. The Tax Day Tea Party Web site, in fact, is reminiscent of what the Obama campaign was able to do with things like voter registration and grassroots meet-ups. You can click on a state and find where there’s a local tea party in any state in the country. This kind of tech savvy could pay dividends in the long run.
Isn’t it a little late in the game for the GOP to be gaming basic social networking tools? It’s not tech-savvy to be mastering five-year old tools. But it’s something. The down side?
On the other hand, this whole thing could backfire if some unsavory elements (i.e., people saying and doing some very stupid things) attend these events.
What do you mean ‘if’?
