Shenanigans: ISupportThisMessage.com

By Anne Schroeder, The Politico Tuesday, March 27, 2007; PG.20

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007 -- 12:00 AM

Political junkies have a new site to surf.

It's YouTube meets MySpace. That's the quick way to define ISupportThisMessage.com.
The three-week-old site is "the future of grass-roots advocacy," says one of the founders, Neil Hare, the president of Global Vision Communication. He was former VP of communications for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"It's a very new site. The genesis of it goes back a couple of years, when I was still at the Chamber. We were dealing with grass-roots e-mailing Congress and becoming very ineffectual on both ends," Hare explained. "(Grass-roots organizations) didn't have an answer what to do next. That was going on at the same time online video and online advocacy was taking off -- starting in '04 (with the) Dean campaign, also in '06 (with) the Macaca thing. Basically, we put things together and brainstormed what would be the next generation's political tool." And bam!
At ISupportThisMessage.com, people can post and view video content and get immediate reaction and -- this is the kicker here -- obtain polling data.
Although he admits the site's mission statement is "very idealistic," Hare is confident that his product has a bright future. "It'll change the way our democracy works. It provides real-time feedback to interest groups and candidates in a way we've never seen before. ... This will be the one central place that everyone comes to."
You heard it here first.