Campaigning in the Digital Age

The New York Times gives a glowing review to a new book by Garrett M. Graff ’03, one of this magazine’s former Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows…

The New York Times gives a glowing review to a new book by Garrett M. Graff ’03, one of this magazine’s former Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows.

In The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web and the Race for the White House, Graff explores the influence of the Internet on campaigning. He deems the current presidential race the first campaign of a new era—hence the title.

Graff, who was a webmaster for Howard Dean and later became the first blogger to get official White House press credentials, contests the argument others have made that Republicans, rather than Democrats, have made the best use of new media. Rather, he writes, “the reins of power online are firmly in the hands of the Democrats.” As examples, he points to Barack Obama’s success at on-line fundraising and the rise of left-leaning blogs such as Daily Kos.

In addition to the review, the Times offers an excerpt from the book.