HERE’S AN INTERESTING PIECE ON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN WEBLOGS, by Lance Knobel in The Guardian:

The template for successful presidential campaigns was established by James (“It’s the economy, stupid”) Carville and Karl (Boy Genius) Rove. Stay relentlessly on message, control the agenda. But Howard Dean thinks there is another way. The Dean campaign for the Democrats has enthusiastically surrendered control to the internet. The success of Dean, who now leads the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, means other aspirant candidates are following his lead. . . .

“Our belief was you have to let control go,” says Gross. “We truly are a grassroots campaign and if you build a command structure on top, you kill it. You have to have trust in the American people.”

On the Web, you gain power by giving up control. The Clark crew doesn’t seem to have quite figured that out yet, but they will, if they stay in the race long enough.

It’s a real problem for the Bush campaign, because to an incumbent — and especially the people who work for an incumbent — the need for control seems much greater.