Republicans try to woo youth with blog guide

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2105305,00.html

Worried that their heavy-bombing, hard-wired, stiff-suited image could lose them younger generation votes in next year's elections, US Republicans are trying to reboot their act: they want to blog their way to victory.

The so-called "blogger outreach" programme was launched last week by the National Republican Senatorial Campaign committee. A 39-page internet guide contains handy tips for candidates hoping to plug into the blogosphere in 2008.

The guide draws particular attention to the fate suffered by the former Republican senator George Allen in Virginia. He directed a slur, known as the "macaca moment", at a young opponent that was captured on video and viewed nationally. His campaign tanked.

Always assume you are being recorded, and record your opponent, the guide states. Forget old-fashioned leaks to newspapers; campaign press secretaries should feed their news to bloggers, to create electronic "buzz". "Every campaign should film their candidate and record his/her every move," it says. Following such advice to the letter could prove problematic for high-living Republicans with complicated love lives or so-called "Newt Gingrich tendencies", top-dog bloggers say.