MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Politico 2.0: Ruffini Blogs, Twitters, Crowdsources Obama Donations | PBS

you’re starting to see online support correlate with momentum. If the campaign has a potential for mainstream appeal, then I think there can be a correlation between all the momentum you’re getting with website traffic, with money that helps the bottom line. I would just point to this — Clinton and Obama have received roughly the same amount of votes [as of last week], maybe he’s ahead by 500,000 votes. But in web searches, he’s ahead [by a ratio of] 77 to 21. In web traffic, he’s ahead 63 to 37. That doesn’t correlate with votes but what it does correlate with is his huge upward momentum in the past couple weeks. It couldn’t have happened without people being able to come online and give the campaign record fundraising totals. I think there’s a cautionary note with this as well. Ron Paul has gathered support online but he doesn’t have mainstream appeal, a basic story that he can sell to the American people. His candidacy was not as palatable to Americans to begin with. He had momentum and you saw rising poll numbers, but at a much lower level. Mike Huckabee is another one who had a lot of support online and had rising poll numbers, but not quite enough. You still have to be offline, you still have to have a message that is compelling. Online can be a great place to sell the story, that you’re growing and you’re on the move.