Why Fred Thompson and the Gang are Must-See-Web-TV

Next year's presidential election is turning into one heck of a shindig! It's kind of like that feeling you get when you see an awesome movie trailer months before the premier and can't wait. (For me, it was Basic Instinct 2)

Who will it be and what will they say? Barack? McCain? Hillary? Giuliani? Edwards? Heck, I've even heard New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will run as an independent with Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel! And if that isn't enough, toss in a possible run by Al Gore (whom some insiders say is 50 - 50).

The real question is to see how crafty these candidates will be on the web. Howard Dean really set the war path - or should I say web path - in 2004, banking gobs of money on the web, when other candidates didn't even know their URL from their KFC. No doubt, they'll be on every website from Myspace to YouTube, and organize much better campaigns using web wikis. Watch out for those e-mails though, according to the Bush Administration they can be easily lost!

I've even offered John Kerry, who so far is staying out of the race, a forum to communicate to our more than 120,000 small business owners across the country - the largest network on the web. Kerry became chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee this year. It's great they put people in charge who understand the plight of the small business owner.

I sent the e-mail a few weeks ago to two different e-mails, but didn't hear back. But it's okay, who knows what blue-collar activity he's up to?

At some point, our merchants will need to hear from the candidates, but more importantly, the candidates will need to hear from the more than 15 million small business owners in the country.

I'm certain we'll see some crafty web activity from the candidates over the next year and a half. I'm on pins and needles. But if you see Sharon Stone around, give me a heads up, so that I can hide all my sharp objects.

Sincerely,
Kevin Leu
Community Relations