An earlier smaller-scale version of that enthusiasm was visible during the Howard Dean campaign, which was considered the first Internet-centric or at least Int

An earlier smaller-scale version of that enthusiasm was visible during the Howard Dean campaign, which was considered the first Internet-centric or at least Internet-adept major party presidential campaign in the U.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean_2004_presidential_campaign#Fundraising_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean_2004_presidential_... This was said to have disintermediated the connection between the candidate and the public, which, at the time, the press generally admired. While Dean apparently pioneered the idea of this direct connection through the Internet, he wasn't credited with the database and psychology expertise that Wired attributed to the Obama campaign four years later.