Jay Leno, in his talk show making fun of Saddam said, “They say he (Saddam) was confused; he was disoriented. It’s the same conditon Al Gore was in before he endorsed Howad Dean.”
The last statement really makes my blood boil, so much so that I decided that I will boycott Jay Leno talkshow from now on! No way I ever ever going to watch his show again!
But as I calm down and think rationally, I wonder why I feel the way I do. I mean, Dean Howard is running for American President (2004) and I am just a non-American in the Singapore! What has he got to do with me?Analyzing my feeling, I realize Dean means more to Internet geeks like me then Dean as American President. Dean maintain an blog, ran a mailing lists for his supporters and his campaigners organized meetings using the Internet using meetup.com all over the world. Most important of all, he asked and listen to the people before making important decisions, a fundamental Net culture.
In short, he is a personification of the Internet culture. The possibility of an America President who really understand the Internet and what it stand for is so electrifying. No wonder thousand of people flood in with donations and volunteers all over the Internet coming to his support. Dean even have a special Drupal engine (DeanSpace) written and maintained by (geeks) volunteers for him!
From a relatively unknown Vermont governor, Al Gore endorsement of Dean Howard is a indication of the power of the Internet. Whether Dean wins the 2004 election or not, he has change how politician is viewing the Internet and how campaign will be done in future forever.
