 We're here at the Internet and Politics Conference at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and I'm here speaking to Becky Donatelli, President of Campaign Solutions and Chief Internet Advisor for President, presidential candidate John McCain. Nice to meet you. Nice to see you. I'm curious about what the lessons from the role of the internet in this campaign are. And what is behind all the hype because a lot of people are saying that this fundamentally changed how campaigns run. Did it fundamentally change how campaigns run? I actually think we fundamentally changed how campaigns ran back in 2000 when we first discovered the actual power of the internet and it's been building every four years and every cycle since then. Each presidential campaign is like a laboratory and we take away something new each time and so we're building on really what's gone the last two cycles and even the Dole campaign back in 1996, which was the first time they actually used the internet at all and had a website. So we're growing, we're learning. Lots of press this time, which is great for our industry. We'd like to think that we've revolutionized everything because we're internet evangelists, but I think it's really just a growing process and an acceptance that the web touches everything and every facet of a campaign. Can I ask a sort of election specific question? There's like this fundamental rule that people say is like every campaign, every election is a referendum on the previous administration. And I'm curious whether we would have seen, you know, with the popularity levels of President Bush at this time, would it have been inevitable that we would have had a kind of change with or without this kind of campaign activity? Well, historically, it's very hard for the in-party to get a third term and the first president of Bush did that, but the electorate felt many ways that they were electing Ronald Reagan to a third term. So just historically you start with that. Then you take a look at an unpopular war, a president whose approvals ratings are the lowest ever in history and frankly up until a few weeks out we were in it tied and moving ahead. The bailout on Wall Street was a tough thing for us. And I think the electorate just went, you know what, we just want something different. So we're proud of the job we did. We're very proud of our candidate. There was a lot about the timing and just the whole political climate that we just simply couldn't overcome. So let's talk about the internet in politics outside of campaigning for a second. What's your vision? What do you see as the role of internet in a politics rather than campaigns? Well, we see the internet as the hub. Think of a wheel in any organization and the hub of that organization is the internet. Every single department or division within a large organization touches and goes through the internet. So we don't see ourselves as being a separate division. We're right in the middle of everything and it doesn't matter whether you're here at Harvard or a political campaign anywhere in modern America. The internet is the focal point in the hub of any successful group. I think. And what's its role in the way that government works? What's it going to be? What are we looking at? Ten years down the road, maybe. Well, government's a little slower than the campaign world. Government's always slower to adopt than the private sector. So I think what you're going to see, though, is with such a heavy acceptance of what we do and frankly, we have to save money in this country and we can't and we have to save resources and we can't just throw things away like we have in the past. So I think the great efficiencies of the websites and the internet in general are such that we will see government adapting itself to a more nimble footing by using the internet. Terrific. Well, thank you very much for your time and it was wonderful to meet you. From the Internet and Politics Conference at the Berkman Center for Internet Society, this is Dan Jones.