The Democrats' embrace of the Web may simply be due to the fact that there appear to be more viable Democratic candidates for the White House, and all of them are trying to distinguish themselves from the pack.

Some of these Web gimmicks border on the absurd. For instance, Clinton's Web site has a selection of 30 "HillaryBuddies." They are icons – ranging from "Cat Lovers for Hillary" to "International Union of Painters and Allied Trades for Hillary" – that supporters can use on their AOL Instant Messenger. Web-based tricks like these are leading to a rather unusual political smackdown: Candidates are going out of their way to declare their geek appeal.

In late February, Clinton's Web site posted a press release claiming that VoteHillary.org had logged more than 1.7 million page views over the previous few months. Those page views, combined with the fact that the campaign was launching a new marketing campaign by buying selected Google Adwords, compelled Clinton campaign operative Peter Feddo to declare that "there is no doubt that Hillary Clinton is the candidate of the Internet savvy in 2008."

Peter Feddo In The Austin Chronicle