Q: Joe Trippi is the author of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Joe Trippi, first of all, let's start with the Obama campaign and this economy, the McCain campaign -- I don't even know where to start with you. Start with [Barack] Obama.

Trippi: Obama looks like he's going to do -- I mean, it looks to me like it's going to be an electoral landslide.... We're still 20-something days out. It could be, you know -- anything can happen, but man, he's really done an incredible job.

Q: And that tinkling bell that you just heard...

Trippi: What was that?

Q: ...is the sound of another breaking news alert from somebody about this crazy market today. How do you run a campaign in the middle of something like this?

Trippi: Well, I mean obviously, the financial crisis and the market news has knocked both of them sort of into the background in a lot of ways, but that helps Obama. First, he's ahead, so the more they're sort of off the scope it's less chance that [John] McCain can move anything. Economic mess always works for Democrats over Republicans. And then the incumbent party always gets blamed for economic messes, and the president is a member of the GOP. So all three ways right now McCain's got pretty much no way to get there from here unless something changes pretty quickly.

Q: And what could that be? The debate next week?

Trippi: Could be the debate. Could be some other, you know, event that can happen out there. It could just be, you know, could be one of them stepping in it. But right now unless something happens it's -- that we don't see, that we can't see right now -- Obama's going to be the next president.

Q: Your expertise is the use of media in these campaigns. What you did with that [Howard] Dean campaign and the Internet... that was the beginning of what we're seeing Obama do now? He has so much cash he can buy a half-hour of television in two weeks?

Trippi: Yeah, he can.... He's got two big advantages going down the wire. He's got a lot more money than McCain does because of the Internet and people giving to him. And then all those people out there that can organize, get out the vote. McCain can't compete with that, either. So even if it's close, Obama's going to do better. I mean, I wrote in the book that, you know, a lot of ways we were the Wright Brothers on the Dean campaign and this is Apollo 11. These guys, they've skipped Boeing and Mercury and Gemini in, like, three years and they're going to land a guy safely in the White House after we just proved you could sort of, you know, glide down a sand dune in Kitty Hawk. So it's pretty amazing.

Q: But what about the Republicans? Don't they have that same kind of field operation, if you put money aside?

Trippi: No. They do not. McCain just doesn't excite -- I mean, maybe with [Sarah] Palin joining the ticket it got some excitement going on, but one, they lacked that excitement for most of the year, and then secondly, the Obama campaign has just used the tools of the Internet to really form a decentralized army out there that's just massive. I mean, we've never seen anything like this in American politics, the get-out-the-vote effort that they're going to have. McCain may have a traditional get-out-the-vote effort on the Republican side, but it's just -- I don't think it's going to match what Obama can -- what all those millions of people out there in the Obama campaign are going to be able to do on Election Day. It's going to be -- I think it's going to shock the McCain campaign.

Q: What is it, 17 or 18 million people -- additional people voted in the primaries this year? We don't, obviously, know how many are going to vote on Election Day. What happens to all those engaged people? Isn't there an expectation that they have a bigger role in their own government afterward?

Trippi: Yeah, and I think that that's going to happen. I think that -- one of the things that happened in 1960 with [John] Kennedy -- you know, Kennedy sort of brought in the television presidency that we saw for the last 40 years or so. I think Obama is going to step in -- when he gives his inaugural speech, we're going to see the launch of the wired presidency, the networked presidency. I mean, it's somebody who can connect -- let's say with the health care plan, and say "I want to pass this health care plan in 100 days and I need your help." Millions of Americans will sign on, and then he's going to say, "There's 15 members of Congress who are standing in our way," and those millions of people out there are going to beat the living daylights out of those 15 members of Congress until they cave. And it'll be a really connected presidency with Obama, and those millions out there that are part of his campaign now actually help push his agenda through. So I think -- no, I think we're going to see a completely changed presidency -- much more powerful presidency than we've seen in a long, long time because of his ability to get those people out there to move against Congress if they get in his way. So I think he's going to have a really, really powerful presidency.

Q: But no one's ever for Congress, Joe.

Trippi: Well, that's -- but that's why Congress is going to be in trouble.

Q: But how does democracy win when you just keep pounding and pounding, pounding?

Trippi: Well, I mean democracy, if it's -- democracy is about self-government, so if millions of Americans are actually involved in prodding their members of Congress to do what they want them to do with the president leading the way, that's got to be good for democracy. It's a hell of a lot better than what we've seen in the last, probably the last 20 years. I mean, it's just gotten worse progressively regardless of what party you're in. You know, as people sort of checked out on their government and sort of left it alone, look at the mess that's gotten us in. So I don't -- you know, I guess you could go overboard the other way. That can happen, and the country does tend to have those kind of swings, so maybe eight years from now we'll be sitting here and we'll be bemoaning that too many people paying too much attention. But I think that so many people are actually starting to get involved again, starting to watch what's going on, starting to participate, willing to be there to pass the Obama agenda, if he's elected -- I think it's going to be good for democracy.

Q: This reminds me of the beginning of CNN and cable and cable news when no one thought there could be one channel, let alone all of these channels, let alone the Internet or anything. But the one thing I can tell you is people got really mad when they engaged and they didn't get anything. So what -- I mean, I don't understand how that's going to work!

Trippi: Well, no, that could happen. I think that's right. I mean, I think if Obama wins with all these people engaged and then he doesn't do anything, I mean there really is no change and it's more of the same, yeah. Then I think there could be big, big problems. I think it could be the end of both parties. I think people could just say, enough of both of them. Let's go, you know -- I think that could be the launch of -- whether it's a [Michael] Bloomberg or somebody four years from now, you know, where the people just disengage from both parties and try to find a third way if Obama lets them down.

Q: I -- when I look at you I think about the John Edwards campaign, and if all the personal problems that hadn't happened, do you think he would have been picked as VP? And do you think he would have done a better job than Joe Biden?

Trippi: Well, I...

Q: Not to put you completely in a box. But why not?

Trippi: [Laughter] Look, I don't think -- I think, first of all, Obama's pick of [Joe] Biden, given all those hypotheticals... that aren't real, has obviously worked out pretty well for him and the party. I think it is sad and really disappointing that John Edwards' mistakes have, like, silenced his voice, particularly when he was such a strong advocate for poverty and he and Elizabeth had put health care front and center in the national debate -- you know, to have that voice missing... I think it's more sad than anything.

Q: Speaking of sad, all the negative ads, and if you leave Washington they're -- you know, any local newscast there's four or five stacked up. I'm not talking about the --

Trippi: I might be making some of those.

Q: Yes, and you probably are. I was going to ask you about that. But at some point this saturation point which, I think these weeks are there, don't people turn away from politics and just say forget it, it's the same old thing, and not vote?

Trippi: No. I -- well, I don't know about not vote, but I do think that particularly with the financial crisis -- I mean, here we are. People are watching the market collapse hundreds of points a day and then, you know, they're watching that, and in between they're seeing all these candidates for office nail each other or make personal attacks at a time when the country's in crisis. I don't think that's going to get you there. So I think, actually... candidates who rise up right now are going to... fare better in these last 25 days or so, which actually makes McCain's job, getting back to the presidency, really a problem, because he's got to attack to make up any ground, and we're sort of seeing a place right now where I don't think people want to see petty attacks.

Q: Well, the conservative bloggers went after McCain because Sarah Palin was attacking, you know, doing the Bill Ayers attack, so he finally had to step into it. But it just seems like it's so yesterday, it feels like it's yesterday in light of the economic times. Is that because we cover this all the time, or do you think, you know, regular people in America who are listening to this think that it doesn't mean anything or they care a lot about it? I mean, we saw a guy in Wisconsin yesterday going completely crazy at a McCain rally. I don't know why you don't talk about this more -- I mean really going after McCain.

Trippi: Well, I think it's very important to conservatives, but I'm not sure at this point, given the economic crisis, that everybody's paying that much attention to the presidential race. In other words -- it's kind of like locked, it's sort of frozen, maybe like the credit markets are frozen right now, but it's sort of frozen in place and it doesn't seem to be able to break open. And I think, you know, there are people who are frustrated on both sides that they can't get their point across, but I think right now to try to score these personal hits isn't going to work for McCain.

Q: What's going to happen at this debate next week?

Trippi: I think McCain -- this is the problem. McCain's got to come with both barrels blazing and, I mean, I don't know what else he can do at this point. He's really let Obama out of the -- you know, sort out of the chute, and I don't know how he's going to catch him at this point.

Q: Joe Trippi's our guest. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It's in paperback. I sound like Larry King. Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Thanks, Joe.

Trippi: Thanks, Tammy.

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