Transcript of Governor Dean's Washington Post On-Line Forum from this morning...

Christopher Lydon asks: "Who's going to decode the Internet transformation of American politics?"

Looks like he is....

Micah Sifry commented and also wrote an article: "....But the thing was still tightly controlled and the candidates -- none of them -- found a way to not pander to their audience."

"Pander" can be the oh-so-slick-feel-your-pain of our overblown Television Anchor Age...or it can be a well-worn, enticing, common comfort channel of a multi-channel conversation, not solely contingent upon broadcast performance for ratings (i.e. syndicated repeats aren't always "great", but people still seem to watch them...and end up discussing them around the water cooler the next day)....

Even if feedback looping is not yet ubiquitous across all elder media, the back channels of blogs, Meetups, local organizing groups, mail-lists, etc. are starting to become 90% of the political iceberg to the 10% showing above the broadcast line...

It's the shark in the water....