Campaigns Quick to Post Online Rebuttals

Long before the two major candidates sent spin-meisters into the press room to persuade reporters on who had won Tuesday night’s debate, their campaigns were making their cases to Web users as the debate unfolded.

From the moment Vice President Al Gore opened his mouth to respond to the first question, both campaigns were racing to update their Web sites with postings to rebut their rivals’ statements on television.

Seconds after Gore cited his budget plan while answering the first question, George W. Bush’s Web crew in Boston posted its first response at 6:05 p.m. PDT, saying Gore’s “proposed numbers do not add up.”

Meanwhile, Gore’s campaign staff in Nashville was posting a “reality check,” saying the vice president’s plan would speed debt reduction. The two campaigns traded factoids for a solid 90 minutes, with the Bush campaign posting 33 responses to Gore’s nine. The Gore campaign also posted a statement from advisor Ron Klain explaining that the vice president “won.”

The two campaigns also waged an online war over prescription drugs, defense, education and other issues. The typical posting contained blurbs from newspaper stories, policy statements or both.

The Gore postings on education said the vice president “implements tough testing and accountability for students and schools,” lifting details from the Web site’s existing policy section. The Bush online team said the Texas governor’s plan “treats teachers like professionals” and quoted a newspaper article about Gore’s school plan.

How many voters viewed the Web sites during the debate wasn’t clear. Only 43% of registered voters surveyed in a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said they were very likely to watch the debates.

Both parties also are trying to use the Internet to draw more computer users into the campaign, offering unprecedented online chats and Web-cams at their conventions. One survey found traffic to the four most popular news sites actually dropped 14% the week of the GOP convention.

Gore’s campaign took another stab at making the campaign interactive Tuesday night, setting up a system for computer users to participate in an online chat. While not requiring it, the Gore operation asked participants to e-mail the debate rebuttals to 10 undecided voters.

Ben Green, director of Gore’s online operations, said: “We’re facilitating their participation in the campaign in a way that just wasn’t possible two or four years ago. We’re also hoping that, by taking advantage of this technology, we can move some undecided voters into our column.”

Terry Holt, a spokesman for the GOP, said Bush was posting the “real-time” responses to offer computer users a running “dose of reality” during the exchange in Boston. “We felt like we were in for some serious competition.”