Sim, nós podemos!

"Sim, nós podemos!" is Portuguese for "yes we can!". I bet Brazilians are going to hear a lot of that really soon. When I wondered why Lula had recently started blogging, I didn’t expect the answer to be so banal. Apparently, Lula’s Brazilian Workers Party has now turned to Blue State Digital, a DC-based Internet ...

"Sim, nós podemos!" is Portuguese for "yes we can!". I bet Brazilians are going to hear a lot of that really soon. When I wondered why Lula had recently started blogging, I didn't expect the answer to be so banal. Apparently, Lula's Brazilian Workers Party has now turned to Blue State Digital, a DC-based Internet strategy firm credited with much of Obama's new media success, for advice on getting Dilma Rouseff, Lula's uncharismatic chief of staff, succeed him as president. Peter Giangreco, who led Obama's direct marketing, is also Brazil-bound.

"Sim, nós podemos!" is Portuguese for "yes we can!". I bet Brazilians are going to hear a lot of that really soon. When I wondered why Lula had recently started blogging, I didn’t expect the answer to be so banal. Apparently, Lula’s Brazilian Workers Party has now turned to Blue State Digital, a DC-based Internet strategy firm credited with much of Obama’s new media success, for advice on getting Dilma Rouseff, Lula’s uncharismatic chief of staff, succeed him as president. Peter Giangreco, who led Obama’s direct marketing, is also Brazil-bound.

I bet their efforts will flounder. What Lula and his staff probably do not understand is that even the Internet can’t make dull candidates more exciting. For Blue State Digital’s efforts to succeed, they’d need start with a candidate that has Obama’s gripping life story. If you start with someone who lacks charisma and is dull, even American consultants won’t be of much help. German politicians have just discovered that in their own electoral campaign; commenting on Germany’s lackluster social media experiment, Reuters was right on the money: "no amount of innovative tactics can compensate for a lack of substance."

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com

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