Danger! Danger!

The Internet is a wonderful tool for political parties. It allows them to target vast numbers of voters at very little expense. It allows them to be creative and appealing in ways that they can't achieve on television or radio. It allows them to reach demographics that were out of reach just a few short years ago. Unfortunately it also allows them to make complete asses of themselves.

The suspension of Ryan Sparrow is a case in point. Apparently he thought that it would be a good idea to use a dead soldier to make political capital and has now paid the price. It's ironic that this should happen on September 11th because it has similarities to an incident in Britain in which a staffer for Tony Blair put out an e-mail during the terrorist attacks saying that this would be a good time "to bury bad news". She was also fired.

There should be a cast iron rule at all party headquarters dealing with this kind of missive. Once it's written wait for 30 minutes until you send it out (I know we live in an instant information age but it can wait), make sure that at least 5 people read it without being told what it's about (what some people think is clever other people think is crass (as Ryan found out), and finally re-check everything and wait another 30 minutes before hitting send.

It might just save your career.