I hosted a panel discussion yesterday at the Leadership Institute on "Why the Internet Matters" for a group of young conservatives. Robert Bluey (Heritage Foundation), Cyrus Krohn (RNC) and Matt Lira (John McCain 2008) offered insight into how the Internet is shaping conservative politics in 2008 and beyond.

The general consensus? The Internet is empowering real people to get involved in the electoral process at a level never before witnessed in American politics. Soon, the Internet will dominate political elections as more and more voters prefer to communicate with their peers online.

I think the right is beginning to recognize that political trend, which is why a select group of conservatives are pushing organizations, candidates and elected officials to be more effective online. This is why Robert Bluey began holding weekly Conservative Blogger Briefings to facillitate conversations between major figures and prominent bloggers at the Heritage Foundation.  And I think the conservative movement is making progress in our effort to surpass the left on the Internet.

I asked Robert Bluey to talk about how the Conservative Movement is using the Internet to affect policy change. He cited Heritage's involvement in the immigration debate in 2007 as a key example of how two-way online communication enhanced the conservative agenda.In 2007, Bluey believes he created a model that the movement is re-creating. This was a moment in which a conservative organization promoted social networks & used YouTube to simplify complex messages.

By encouraging grassroots supporters to join the discussion and add content, organizations did away with the tried and true Top Down way of communication and began to focus on Bottom-Up involvement.

Now for the first time, countless organizations are using new media tools to empower supporters to be effective at the local level and in turn, we are affecting policy change even if our progress is recorded in micromovements.

To Cyrus Krohn, baby steps for the movement now lead to major strides down the road.

Cyrus Krohn mentioned that he realized the non-partisan value of the medium to the electoral process in the mid-1990’s. It was a realization that in the 1990’s and perhaps even today, many political parties did not want to hear.Flash forward to 2008, and the RNC’s phone is ringing off the hook. More and more campaigns are wondering how they can use the Internet to win elections. So, conservatives see the need, but Cyrus notes a generational gap.

Many conservative generations understand the importance of new media skills, but still don’t know how to use them.

This is why the Leadership Institute is expanding its Internet training programs and expanding its reach across the country. To be successful, I think all organizations need to work together. Each organization serves a role in the movement and a better stream of communication between each party is only going to help hone our efforts.

Matt Lira took our discussion a step further to state that 2008 is the most important year for the Internet.And 2009 will be the most important year for the Internet. And 2010. And so on.The goal is to constantly re-evaluate where we stand online as the communication dynamic changes.

I enjoyed Matt’s discussion of his time with Eric Cantor and now at John McCain. He talked about how he went from a high resource environment at the RNC to a lower resource environment on the Hill.

I had to sharpen my blade and learn to be more efficient with the resources available. When every penny counts, you strive to be more effective in everything that you do.

To Matt, Web 2.0 reenables Americans to be involved in the decision making process.

So what’s next?

Cyrus foresees the movement from Horizontal Social Networks, like Facebook, to Vertical Networks in which voters can connect with other people and rally around niche interests. This is only going to make our job more difficult as we become less able to penetrate those silos of networks.

Thoughts?

I’m interested to know how you think the conservative movement can work together to address these issues to be more effective online.

I just received confirmation from Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation that Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Ben Stein will speak at the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Bloggers’ Briefing on Tuesday, April 15, at noon.

The event coincides with the release of “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.”

Note: This event is CLOSED to the public and open to the Right kind of bloggers only. Anyone who wants to attend should RSVP to Bluey.

On a personal note, I'm a huge fan of Ben Stein because he was such a good sport when I was working for Congressman Jack Kingston, Ben agreed to participate in our intern YouTube video series, "Journeys with Jack."

Here's the clip:

It'll be good to see you again, Ben.

Campaigns & Elections Magazine has a new look-and-feel for 2008. From a note from William Beaman (editor-in-chief) and Jordan Lieberman (publisher):

Campaigns & Elections has unveiled a redesigned and revamped version of the flagship publication and will now be known as Campaigns & Elections’ Politics magazine.

The redesigned magazine will retain the features that have led to its unprecedented growth in recent years, but will also add new original content, larger trim size and upgraded cover stock.

To help encourage new subscriptions (or renewals), they've reduced the subscription rate to $25 so make sure you get your subscription today.

The re-design looks and feels great. Congrats.

But at least one story in their latest issue is sure to cause sales to decline. You see, included in their latest issue is a profile piece on Robert Bluey, Erick Erickson, Patrick Ruffini, and me.

Read on after the jump for a chuckle.

After the YouTube-CNN Debate, I spent some time in the "Spin Room" talking with folks about their thoughts on the Republican debate. (I did the same thing at the Democratic YouTube debate earlier this year.)

Below, find short vlogs from Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, Patrick Ruffini, Robert Bluey, Mary Katharine Ham, James Kotecki, Jose Antonio Vargas, Meghan McCain, Charlie Smith, and, wait for it... Chuck Norris.

Ready.
Set.
Go.

(After the jump)

Robert Bluey has a column on the front-page of today's Townhall.com called "Leveling the online playing field," which notes the launch of Slatecard:

Slatecard was founded on the notion that conservatives identify with issues. The site gives the community the ability to assign "issue badges" to a particular candidate, making it easy to see which candidates share the same values, hence the name Slatecard. All and business partner Sendhil Panchadsaram have come up with 26 "issue badges" that users can associate with a candidate. Rudy Giuliani, for instance, has badges for "Defeat Radical Islam," "Social Centrists" and "Tax Simplification."

"Slatecard is what ActBlue would look like today if it was created in 2007 in a Web 2.0 world," All said. The site allows users to connect with candidates on a variety of social networking websites, making it a one-stop destination. It also employs a ticker function to see what's happening in real time.

For this piece, Robert asked me a series of questions via email which I've pasted below (with answers) for your review: (read more after the jump)

Our friend Robert Bluey set down his mouse and keyboard for an interview on CNN recently worth watching: