GOP surpasses Dems on Twitter

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By Christina Bellantoni

As several hundred operatives, consultants and activists huddled for the tech summit Friday, Republican officials promised the rush to embrace new technology was "just the beginning."

They were quick to admit they had been stomped by Democrats and Mr. Obama during the past two elections but said they have the tools to play catch-up.

Mr. Culberson said technology is "the next revolution that's going to take back the Congress," suggesting it enables Republicans to "bypass" the traditional liberal media that "for so long was the only way we could communicate with people" and predicting, "They will become obsolete, like buggy whips and horse and carriages."

The RNC tech summit was held at a Washington hotel but also broadcast online via UStream.tv. Ten minutes into the program, the shaky feed had just 61 viewers watching the summit live. It cut out several times but was up to 109 viewers 30 minutes later, only to drop the signal completely for a half-hour.

By midday, more than 300 viewers were online — many also "tweeting" their impressions of the summit — listening as one presenter talked about the founding of MoveOn.org in the 1990s via a petition against the impeachment of then-President Clinton.

Republicans said technology can help the party bring in more people to build its small minority into a larger force.

"I'd like 100 million people to get the talking points," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

He noted that he recently held his first online news conference and bragged that he has the "ninth most friends on Facebook" among members of Congress, "And I'd like more friends."

Mr. Obama remains one of the most popular people on the Internet — enjoying more Facebook friends (5.4 million), Twitter followers (281,651) and YouTube views (more than 3 million have watched WhiteHouse.gov videos) — than any other politician.

However, as Republicans make up for lost time, technology problems have tripped up the White House. The e-mail system has gone down, and Mr. Obama broke a campaign promise to post bills online five days before signing them in part because of lackluster tech tools.