Republican congressional Brad Jones has had an entire year, more than all the other candidates combined, to establish a credible online presence, but he's failed. The consequence to his campaign? When I did a Google Blogsearch for Brad Jones this morning, the top five results were for:
- Brad Jones, Best Male Athlete at Fraser High School in Michigan
- Brad Jones, Australian soccer goalie
- Brad Jones, Shaolin Karate instructor
- Brad Jones, Fishing guide in Colorado
- Brad Jones, expert in the role of vitamins and minerals in nutrition
There was nothing at all in the top 5 hits about Brad Jones running for Congress. A search for the other candidates, Les Roberts, Michael Arcuri, and Ray Meier, does not yield the same empty result. Debate the worth of these three candidates as you will, but at least they aren't being ignored online.
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3 comments:
Would a Shaolin Monk be a bad congressman?
I can't believe I am about to defend brad jones. Not that I support him in any way, but Brad Jones isn't exactly a unique name. I don't know much about how you get to the top of a search list, what would he need to do? how does that work? even when you search les roberts and mike arcuri you come up with some author and some guy in a band I think?
I know this is a blow to everyone, but the internet simply is not all that important in this election and nobody is going to be the Howard of the 24th. This is not a national issue where the entire country takes an interest. If you don't believe me, take a look at just how many people who aren't repeats post to this blog and the others. The footprint just isn't very big. We keep forgetting that not everybody loves their computers in the way we do. Mostly, it's a handful of us having fun with blogs and posting our opinions. Most people just aren't going to do a search for Brad Jones or anybody and expect to vote based on blogs. Most people aren't going to look up candidates on blogs unless they are involved in politics in some way, even if only emotionally. They are going to look for the words they want to hear from the candidates, as printed in the newspaper or covered on TV. Once again, academia is out of touch. I was one once. Then the real world kicked in when I changed professions. We democrats do that academic idealism thing so well. We assume everybody wants to do it just like we want them to do it. Then we all act surprised when it doesn't work out the way we had hoped.
I have been using and making a living from computers for more than two decades, but I will not delude myself into thinking that the internet is going to have a huge impact on my district. One slam-dunk TV commercial can wipe out everything any one of us can write on the net, even if the commercial isn't true.
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