Clay Shirky writes in Many-to-Many: Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Campaign?

Shirky gives a very interesting analysis of not just the Dean campaign but its supporters. Too often people tend to support a candidate because of a candidate’s tactics rather than what the candidate will actually do in office.

Many Dean supporters liked Dean because he was anti-war and tough. But many others like Dean because he used the Internet to get support. The later, a tactic, is the wrong reason to like a candidate.

In 2000, many CEOs in Silicon Valley supported Gore because “he gets the Internet.” And its true, Gore was personally a lot more tech savvy than Bush. But Gore was on the wrong side of almost every major tech issue. Now you can still support a candidate that is against all your business interests — that is admirable — but you shouldn’t support someone based on a tactic.