I wrote about this before but as it has bumped around in my subconscious my thinking has become clearer on it and I wanted to make another post that reflected that change. 

This was inspired by a CNN story entitled "Meghan McCain tells the GOP to get tech savy"  The article says...

In a column on the Daily Beast Web site, the daughter of Sen. John McCain says the GOP is likely to continue its decline in power unless members vastly improve their tech fluency.

"This has been a source of personal frustration for me for a very long time," said McCain of the party's seeming disconnect with technology. "Unless the GOP evolves as the party that can successfully utilize the Web, we'll continue to lose influence"

I think where my thinking has changed on this issue is that I fell into the trap that many strategists do and allowed myself to see the Internet as "just another media source." 

But that's not how the Internet works.

The web is a social beast.  It's about people making connections to each other without filters.  So a strategy that says "embrace the Internet" is largely pointless because an Internet effort can't exist without a passionate user base.  More importantly, once you have that passionate user base they will largely take care of things themselves.

The key isn't "embracing the Internet" it's making people excited enough to want to  make a connection with others.  So what the GOP needs is a strong leader and a message that appeals to the voters they've turned away.  Once they get that the Internet following will come. 

If you need an example look at Ron Paul.  Ron Paul is a 73 year old man.  He did not set out to run an online campaign.  What he did was excite people and those people created an online effort on his behalf.  The same would be true of any GOP candidate that people felt passionate about.

Addendum: For the record, you shouldn't take this as me disagreeing with Meghan McCain.  She clearly felt passionately about her father's candidacy so her putting up a blog just proves my point.  But the GOP needs a candidate that gets everyone as excited as she was.