Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Camapign?
http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/01/26/is_social_software_bad_for_the_dean_campaign.php

I'm getting the same cognitive dissonance listening to political
handicappers explain Dean's dismal showing in Iowa that I used to get
listening to financial analysts try to explain dot com mania with
things like P/E ratios and EBITDA. A stock's value is not set by those
things; it is set by buyer and seller agreeing on price. In ordinary
markets, buyers and sellers use financial details to get to that
price, but sometimes, as with dot com stocks, the way prices get
agreed on has nothing to do with finance.

In the same way, talking about Dean's third-place showing in terms of
'momentum' and 'character', the P/E and EBITDA of campaigns, may miss
the point. Dean did poorly because not enough people voted for him,
and the usual explanations -- potential voters changed their minds
because of his character or whatever -- seem inadequate to explain the
Iowa results. What I wonder is whether Dean has accidentally created a
movement (where what counts is believing) instead of a campaign (where
what counts is voting.)

And (if that's true) I wonder if his use of social software helped
create that problem.