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Le Internet Campaign…

Posted by David on April 11th, 2007

…Is a post at techPresident written by my facebook and twitter pal, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry.

Here’s a snippet of his post:

To the outside observer, France’s 2007 race for president has a lot in common with the 2008 race in the U.S.

Like in the U.S., it’s wide open: for the first time since 1974, no candidate is an incumbent prime minister or president. Like in the U.S., this is the first time a woman – and a highly polarizing one – is a credible candidate. Like in the U.S., the stakes are very high because many hope that the election will help solve a deeply traumatic issue, Iraq for the U.S., and the welfare state in France.

Of course, like in the U.S., the candidates are desperately trying to use the internet to their advantage. And like in the U.S., even though they seem to think it’s important, they also seem to be stumbling in the dark, spending lots of money to leverage the power of the new media without really understanding its nature. This is why the candidates’ efforts are interesting, and maybe yield lessons for U.S. campaign watchers.

The international politics + tech sphere interest me deeply. Shocking, I know.

In fact, I’ve been following David Cameron in the UK rather closely.

But when it comes to Sarko and Segolene… well, I’m at a loss because I don’t speak French.

Fortunately, Pascal and I started going back and forth via IM about the campaign in France and how I was hoping to write something about their use of the Internet. Bless facebook.

Pascal is the secretary general of Impulsion Concorde, France’s premier right of center think tank for students and young professionals. I wish we had a similar think tank.

I’d like to be a part of that movement.

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