E-lection Presidential election 2008

As USA Today states the 2008 Presidential candidates are increasingly running e-lection campaigns, as politics merges into the electronic, online world.  The Apple 1984 / Hillary Clinton mashup video was cited as an example of the emergence of new media into traditional Presidential campaigns.  The article quotes the video's producer, Phil de Vellis, as stating "This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed." 

Internet adoption and new media technology have changed the game, but this is just the first minute of play.  Candidates creating videos, social network sites, etc. is nice.  It enables citizens to become a part of the conversation - a living, evolving, dynamic, multi-media conversation. 

But I can't wait for elections in which the candidates have blogs that go back 20 or 30 years - blogs that they wrote long before they had Presidential aspirations - blogs that show the evolution of their life and views - not just some content highlighted for an election.  Not only blogs, but a multi-year digital record - videos and photos they've uploaded, wikis and blogs that they've left comments on, communities that they've interacted with for years, etc. 

Maybe scary to some candidates, but that's the level of transparency and context that is evolving.  As a citizen, I think it is terrific. Similar to education, politics is just on the brink of being revolutionized by the new media paradigm.