This could be the first billion-dollar presidential campaign.
And with so many new techie tricks available -- who knew that YouTube would be a presidential player? -- there are many new ways to spend all that money.
One reason the money chase has become an extreme sport this time is that most major candidates have opted out of the public financing system. With no legal limits on fundraising -- well, there's no limit. And it won't be just the candidates doing the spending if the past couple of election cycles are any indication. Remember the Swift Boat ad campaign that wounded John Kerry? The political pros certainly do. An array of independent political action committees, non-profits, and so-called 527 organizations are poised to play a greater role than ever before. In Iowa and other early states, the Clinton, Huckabee and Romney campaigns already have been targeted with ads and direct mail from such groups.
But ads and mail seem like dusty relics, given the explosion of new technologies the campaigns are trying to exploit. Taking a cue from Howard Dean four years ago, campaign strategists have poured enormous resources into Internet outreach through candidate websites and web ads, e-mail correspondence and social-networking sites. Meanwhile, the essential freedom of the 'Net means that the campaigns may not be able to exercise as much control as they would like, even over their own message. The slightly risqué "Obama Girl" music video has been viewed more than 4 million times, the anti-Clinton "Apple 1984" ad nearly as often. The Barack Obama campaign has said it had nothing to do with either.
Ron Paul's phenomenal money-raising also has occurred through new technology, much of it via YouTube. He has nearly 40,000 YouTube subscribers, more than triple those attracted by any other candidate.
