by Joe Trippi (Regan Books, 2004)

Howard Deanï¿œs campaign manager Trippi reveals how he used the Internet to make Dean a front-runner, if only temporarily, claiming that the Dean campaign was open sourceï¿œmeaning that it was a relatively transparent political campaign. This is a good read for anyone who wants insight into the Dean campaign, though itï¿œs important to remember that itï¿œs only one manï¿œs perspective.

According to Trippi, ï¿œOne problem with running an open source campaign is that you also open it up to every crank with a computer who despises your candidate. We had a policy that we wouldnï¿œt remove critical posts from the blog. If people wanted to take an honest shot at Howard or at the campaign, we welcomed it. Disagree with his stance on the war? Fine. Want to argue abortion? Great. It sparked some of the most interesting debates on the blog to have differing opinions.ï¿œ