Why this blog?

[Note: Written before NH]

Hylton and I started discussing the possibility of my doing a blog under the Corante umbrella a few weeks ago, but now that Dean has been blown out of Iowa, this blog's topic is more relevant than ever: How the Net is changing politics and governance.

Before Iowa, that would inevitably have been a discussion of the Dean campaign. After Iowa, it's clearly a discussion independent of any particular candidate.

I remain a Dean supporter. I like his political positions overall, I like his pragmatism, I like his message of hope, and I still think that he has the best chance of beating Bush. But I am foolishly doe-eyed about only one aspect of the Dean campaign: It's not only shown that the Net is a powerful political tool, it has done so by consistently surprising us about the how and the why of that tool.

I tell you that I'm a Dean supporter not to try to convince you to be one, too, but so you'll be able to compensate for my biases. (Disclosure: I have a title with the Dean campaign - Senior Internet Advisor - but I am purely a volunteer.) But I make no apologies for my enthusiasm about the way in which the Web can improve our democracy. About this issue I am unabashedly partisan.