Webb, a Vietnam War hero, best-selling author, former Secretary of the Navy, respected national security expert, "political outsider" and populist democrat was pitted against Harris Miller, a consummate Washington "insider" whose activities as a pro-outsourcing high tech industry lobbyist were often obscured behind press accounts of his ties to Virginia state Democratic Party figures and portrayal as a Democratic Party activist, businessman and technology executive.
Ironically, the Internet blogosphere proved to be a major weakness for Harris Miller. Indeed, it may have proven to be his undoing as bloggers relentlessly posted the appalling details of Miller's past lobbying activities which were so critical in assisting corporations in their continuing effort to replace or substitute low-wage foreign workers for middle class Americans.
Though often criticised as vitriolic, the internet bloggers, not the MSM took the initiative to "research" Miller, authoring much of the material about Miller's lobbying activities and tying this to his campaign's claims creating a tremendous credibility gap for Miller among "wired" 'net-savvy voters...
The irony of a self-described "technology leader" falling victim to technology-enabled internet activism was not unforeseeable. Miller's sharpest opponents included information technology professionals injured by his lobbying activities, hardened by suffering and political activism and adept in the use of modern internet technology. This presented the establishment insider Miller with a battlefield for which he and his campaign were unprepared despite his much vaunted reputation as a technology "wonk".
In the end, it's clear that Miller's lobbying activities had alienated and infuriated many of the American IT workers who really built the Internet... Some of these people have honed their activism for years and were ready to enter the fray when Miller announced his political ambitions.
To be continued...
Crossposted from The Modern Patriot with minor changes.
True that there is/was other information on the Webb about Miller. I wrote some of it myself. But the bloggers made the cumulative effect devastating.
Interesting isn't it how even with all of this out in the 'net, the MSM could never quite put it all together for people to read in a paper, online or on the tv news? Rather sad actually.