Look out, Republicans have discovered Twitter

30.01.2009
Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Michigan Republican State Committee, is a top contender to become chairman of the Republican National Committee. He's got something George Bush never had: . His rival for the post, Ken Blackwell of Ohio, retorts, "I have 4,000 friends on Facebook."

Sure, Anuzis needs another 215,000 followers to catch up with President Obama. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, GOP politicians are belatedly . The RNC's e-campaign director told Journal reporter Christopher Rhoads, "When you get beat, you look at where you got beat and double down on improving that area."

That's a big change from the McCain-Palin campaign. McCain's videos did well on YouTube, at one point in popularity. But McCain's head of new media operations won't win any Web 2.0 love for telling Rhoads, "If there's someone out there who votes for the candidate who Twitters more, then we need to take away his voter-registration card. Our soccer moms might pay their bills online, but they probably won't spend six hours a day on Facebook."

Michael Patrick Leahy, the conservative author of Rebuilding the Republican Party Despite the Brain Dead Luddites Who Run it, has set up , a site that automatically tracks Anuzis, Blackwell, and many more politicians, pundits and strategists. Karl Rove? . His most recent tweet: "Here's a link to my latest WSJ column." Way to rub it in, Karl.