WASHINGTON -- The last election that we just endured is still being quantified and dissected. From the seemingly endless forums and reviews that have flowed since Nov. 2, we are learning a bit about how our elections are run and won.
The 2004 presidential election was a landmark election in America. It was the most expensive, the most intrusive and the most technologically advanced. The manner in which it was fought will cast the way politics is practiced in America for the immediate future.
It was money that changed the practice -- not to the extent that barrels of cash overwhelmed the system but rather that smart political operators had the resources to try new technologies and use alternative media that had an impact by bringing to the American scene new ways of reaching voters.