Actually, that's not fair. The Bush-Cheney campaign pioneered many of the organizing and fundraising techniques that successful campaigns use today. But the GOP innovation landscape has been as bleak as the the party's fortunes. Enter John Weaver -- yes, that John Weaver, the one-time long-time chief strategist for John McCain. As the Wall Street Journal
reports, Weaver purchased the political rights to a technology that allows groups to raise money the same way that Google does. Or Yahoo: every time a special customized browser is used to search the net, the group sponsoring the browser gets some money.
Weaver told me that his introducton to political micropayments was accidental; he met
Casey Adkisson, one of the co-inventors at his daughter's soccer game nine years ago and was the first consultant contacted by him earlier this year when the technology was ready. The Republican National Committee and the NRA are among the first two political licensees. Here's how the NRA described the tool to its members:
The
NRA-ILA Toolbar will appear right on your desktop, and will let you
raise money for NRA-ILA's legislative and political programs while you
go about your normal online activities, such as searching and shopping! And with this free toolbar, quick access to all the breaking news, updates, and messages from NRA-ILA is just a click
away! You can even track your personal contributions in real time to see the difference you're making!
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