'If This Is What People Want To Do...'
That's where the Space Needle and cartoonist Gary Trudeau come in. Monday's Doonesbury cartoon shows Alex Doonesbury, a Seattle dot-commer, typing "Saturday September 13th, 10:35 AM" into her computer. "Place: Foot of the Space Needle. Activity: Link arms in an enormous circle, hop up and down chanting 'the doctor is in!' Disperse."
"Flash Mobs for Dean," she tells her stepmom. Dean is Howard Dean, the early Democrat frontrunner for president whose campaign already has an Internet-based grassroots head start. His supporters use the Internet to set up and publicize a host of nationwide events including coffee shop "meet-ups" the first Wednesday of every month where they get together to brainstorm how to get Dean elected.
But will there really be a circle around the Space Needle with people hopping and chanting on Saturday morning? The Doonesbury cartoon was a surprise to Betty Means, the Director of the Dean for President Campaign in Washington State.
"I would be the last person to tell people what to do and not to do," she said with a laugh.
But there are already indications that people will hop and chant their tribute to the Vermont governor and medical doctor. What may have started as a cartoonist's joke about an Internet savvy campaign is now listed as an actual event on the candidate's Web site. As of Monday night, 26 people had registered online to attend and to hop up and down.
"This is a campaign where people empower themselves to do what they think is the right thing to do to promote Howard Dean's candidacy," said Means. "If this is what people want to do, it sounds like they're gonna have a lot of fun doing it."
Mr. Trudeau could not be reached for comment.
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