The News & TeleGraff

As I lay out in "The First Campaign," there are vast differences between the ways that the two parties use the internet. This week's Republican YouTube debate is certainly a key case-in-point.

I've got an op-ed in the Politico today exploring the Republicans' technological challenges:

For years now, the Grand Old Party, which sees its messaging power stem from talk radio and other conservative traditional outlets, has lacked the infrastructure and enthusiasm online that has helped power the Democrats to fundraising records this year.

It should be a huge red flag to the party that Congressman Ron Paul, the man objectively least likely to win the party's nomination, is the only one who has generated any heat and passion online — his supporters broke all fundraising records this month with a $4.2 million single-day online push.

More typical was the response at the end of the first quarter this year from the GOP front-runners, who had such an anemic online effort that they refused to release Internet fundraising numbers even as the Democratic candidates loudly trumpeted the millions the Web had brought them.

Tonight’s an important opportunity for the Republican Party to demonstrate that it’s willing to meet Americans on their own terms, take challenging questions from real Americans, and engage in the online world where people are spending more and more of their free time.

I hope that tonight's debate is a real turning point in the GOP candidates' approach to the web—this is where the future is going to play out and it's a huge problem for our country and their party if they don't want to participate.