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Futhermore: A blog by Gannett News Service Political Editor Chuck Raasch

Can Warner avoid being Gored?

Mark Warner is pushing technology into the political marketplace like no other potential '08 presi-dential candidate. The benefit for him is obvious: The ex-Virginia governor and unannounced presi-dential candidate comes across as tech-savvy, innovative, entrepreneurial, futuristic and attuned to GenYers. But as he rolls out more initiatives, a question arises: Can he avoid the Al Gore trap and not be another "I invented the Internet" smartest techie in the room?

Today, Warner announced he's pushing a nationwide voter registration drive contest using cell phones. In New Hampshire, Warner planned to ask students to dial 7544 on their cell phones, key "Warner," and start the registration process. In a telephone interview on the way to the event, Warner, who pioneered the company that became Nextel, explained that people can use their cell phones to link to the right office that will electronically send them the proper voting registration forms where they live.

Last month, a Warner avatar - blessed by the ex-governor himself - appeared on the popular fantasy site Second Life. Some snickered. But the alternative routing got decent reviews from Hotline.blog.

Asked how he avoided such a trap, Warner said he realizes that "at the end of the day all of this is just a tool. So this may get somebody to listen to you, but if you don't have an idea and you don't have a sense of how we fix our country, people may check you out once but you will be a one-time wonder."
Warner said Gore was hurt by the fallout of a bursting Internet bubble. "In a lot of ways, the late '90s and even through 2000, it was more the promise of what this transformative change was going to do to our lives. ...It didn't happen as quickly" as some were predicting, he said, but now, "how it is changing lives is much more real."

Posted By CHUCK RAASCH, GNS POLITICAL WRITER on September 22. 2006 2:31PM
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Chuck Raasch is political editor for Gannett News Service. His column, Newpolitics, appears here and on USA TODAY.com. A native of South Dakota and a graduate of South Dakota State University, Raasch has covered political campaigns since 1978, including Tom Daschle's first race for Congress and George McGovern's last race for the Senate. He has covered presidential campaigns since 1988.

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