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"My thinking was: If I could actually help the party through my experience with technology, then why not?" Cyrus Krohn says about becoming eCampaign director for the RNC. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
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Though McCain's site is cleanly and attractively designed, with a vibrant blogging community, it lacks certain features. For instance, Obama's text messaging program is prominently placed on his home page and he regularly sends text messages to collect Zip codes and mobilize supporters. McCain, in contrast, doesn't have a text program.

Krohn bristles at the criticism of McCain's eCampaign team. For instance, he says, "both parties are still too TV-obsessed."

"The use of TV in campaigns is kind of like our dependency on foreign oil. We know we have to get off it. We know we need to find alternative energy sources. But we keep on going back to the pump," Krohn continues. "Fact is, we need to develop a higher degree of comfort with allocating media dollars to the Web."

Last summer, he got the chance to test the effectiveness of the Internet as a stand-alone campaign tool. With the permission of the RNC's senior staff, Krohn zeroed in on the Louisiana gubernatorial race. Then-Rep. Bobby Jindal was an attractive candidate, Krohn says, and it was projected to be a tight race. For 3 1/2 months, using online micro-targeting and data-matching, he identified a set of voters and turned them out to the polls.

Statewide turnout for the Louisiana race was 46 percent. Of those voters who interacted with Krohn's online targeting -- he won't say how much of the total vote -- 76 percent voted, he claims. Krohn says he's not suggesting that the RNC is responsible for Jindal's win. What it does suggest, however, is that the model could have significant impact on voter turnout, he adds.

"Everyone is talking about Obama and his success with the youth vote. Well, there's a significant older demographic on the Web, and what I was able to do in Louisiana is identify and interact with an older voting bloc," Krohn says.

"With all the attention on YouTube and Facebook, I think we've become pretty dismissive of portals like AOL or Yahoo because they're perceived as passe. But how can you be dismissive of tens of millions of potential voters? Especially older voters who are more likely to vote for McCain?"

Still, it's the young voters that keep him awake at night in his rowhouse in Old Town Alexandria, a block off the Potomac, across the street from former Democratic governor Mark Warner.

"I can't ignore the youth vote," Krohn continues. "How do we captivate the hearts and minds of younger people on the Internet? They're not watching TV ads, they're not listening to the radio, Rush Limbaugh isn't necessarily their god. And they're the voters of tomorrow, of 2012, of 2016, of 2020. How do we develop a dialogue with them?"