Internet strategist for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, Nicco Mele:
Mele explained that you need to hire five people as a politician to succeed: a fundraiser, a PR director, a field director, a pollster and someone who produces your television commercials. The internet, he argues, really only affects one of these functions – fundraising. The goal of a political campaign in an internet age, Mele tells us, is to collect email addresses as quickly as possible and use them to raise small donations – which are more time-efficient than large donations, which require in-person shmoozing – so you can buy televisions ads.