...Success online isn't about technological bells and whistles on your website. It isn't about diaries, conference calls, and fancy parties for bloggers. It isn't about Blogads, or hiring the right Internet staff. It isn't simply about vociferous opposition to the Bush administration on one or more issues. Undoubtedly, all of these things are important, but mainly they are ways to cultivate an existing base of online support, or to trim around the edges of your potential supporters. Ultimately, massive netroots success of the sort experienced by Dean and Clark in 2003-2004 is about identifying, articulating, and coming to symbolize a broader, deeper, theme of the zeitgeist felt by a wide section of the online Democratic activist base...Of course, this is not the sort of advice most campaigns want to hear. First, it means that reaching out to the netroots and cultivating online support will require other campaign departments to supplement the Internet portion. Many campaigns view the interent portion of a campaign as something that should supplement fundraising, media and field, rather than the other way around...
This is excellent stuff, read the whole thing here. The bottom line is that becoming a netroots superstar, as Jim Webb did in 2006, is not a simple, replicable formula. If it were, everyone would do it. To the contrary, it's a matter of the right messenger tapping into the right message - something out there that's real and powerful and which resonates with the netroots. Clearly, Jim Webb did that in 2006, and continues to do so in 2007. Which brings us to the 2008 Democratic contenders and to the question: who, if anyone, will be the 2008, netroots version of Jim Webb?
Whereas Edwards, who might have the most online support right now, decided he was going to run before he sought support from the netroots.