But framed in the context of online draft movements like Draft Clark in 2004, there isn’t a Draft Hagel movement that merits attention in the NY Times. Hell, until a couple weeks ago (long after it was clear Obama was running) the Draft Obama movement was both a joke and superfluous. Now at least they’re leveraging massive Facebook support.

I’d say that a Draft movement exists long before there is media coverage of a potential candidate. Who thought of Wes Clark as a presidential candidate before there was a movement to draft him? No one. That’s a movement.

I don’t mean to discourage your work. But while you’re working hard to get Hagel in the race, my guess is that he will end up in the race of his own volition and not an online trumpet call put forth by the Draft Hagel efforts.

The average age of Republicans is older than that of Democrats and I think it shows to some degree in the lack of utilization of the web and the new networking sites.

Sorry, I don’t buy that. Show me evidence that Republicans are older than Democrats. How does that relate to the fact that before and during the 2004 election Republican blogs wielded far greater influence than Democratic blogs?

We are primarily not experienced bloggers or remarkably internet savvy. The average age of Republicans is older than that of Democrats and I think it shows to some degree in the lack of utilization of the web and the new networking sites.

Of course, part of it is just media exposure as well. My blog has had more visitors in the last two weeks than in it did in the first seven months it was up and running. Likewise membership in the online forums has jumped as well. In part, a grassroots movement is facilitated by media coverage of a candidate.