Campaigning for president on Jan. 29, 2000, George W. Bush asked residents of Concord, N.H., the somewhat confusing question: "Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"
No matter how you phrase it, Mr. Bush and his Democratic challenger, Al Gore, would soon begin to realize the tremendous value of the Internet in reaching potential voters, albeit during the hotly contested 2000 race their individual campaign Web sites were viewed by only a few hundred-thousand people during an average month, compared with tens of millions today.
In fact, slightly more than 50 percent of congressional candidates in 2000 cared or even knew enough to create campaign Web sites.
What a difference a decade makes.
Word this week is that three-quarters (74 percent) of Internet users went online during the 2008 campaign to take part in, or else get news and information about, the 2008 election cycle, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
This represents 55 percent of the entire adult population, and marks the first time more than half the voting-age population used the Internet to connect to the political process during an election cycle.
FORDS FOR ALL
The Ford Motor Co. headline reads: "David Plouffe is the latest in President Obama's inner-circle to jump on the Ford hybrid bandwagon."
Other owners of the environmentally "green" car being Mr. Obama himself (somehow we can't picture his predecessor, George W. Bush, behind the wheel of a Ford hybrid, although Mr. Bush did enjoy showing off his rugged white Ford F-250 pickup truck whenever foreign heads of state came calling to his Crawford, Texas ranch, - often riding shotgun) and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
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