Republicans vs. Technology, Round 2.0 (Beta)

Thanks to Barack Obama, who has made it physically impossible for anyone to win an election without Facebook apps and @replies, the Republican National Committee had to convene a Technology Summit and interface real hard about the future. Because if they can just solve that captcha, they're golden…

Eight years of the Bush presidency created and strengthened the netroots, the liberal blogosphere. The conservative blogosphere, the so-called rightroots, appears poised to benefit the same way from the Obama administration.

(Most of the words in this paragraph should be outlawed. Not 'eight,' though! That's a lucky number in China, where we are owned.) Anyway, People You May Know: Michael S. Steele…

"When we get to 2010, I want my campaigns here," [RNC Chairman Michael] Steele continued as he held up his BlackBerry. "I want whatever we're doing to be within my thumb's reach."

Talk to Larry Craig. He's already figured that out.

But in the end, blogging, Facebook and YouTube are just tools, as technocrats like to preach. A few attendees at Friday's event said the RNC should focus not just "on rebooting its operating system," as Ravi Singh explained it, but also on getting a new message. Singh stood out in the room. While addressing the crowd, the American-born and -raised Sikh jokingly referred to himself "as this crazy turban guy with a turban and a beard."

Hilarious! Also prudent. If that crazy turban guy with a turban hadn't made such a joke, the RNC might have instinctively summoned Joe the Plumber from his man-hole to climb on stage and "reboot" the Muslim, who should go back to Al-Qaeda or wherever, with his phony "American" birth certificate.