He seems to be the first candidate to hold an event in an online virtual community, in this case Second Life. A full-on town hall will follow in the Fall. Gimmicky? Yep. But I bet it’ll gin up some attention — already, a CNN team was covering it.
Update: Hotline On Call was there and has a nice write-up of an event that “might be mockable, but it’s path-breakingly mockable.” Money quote: “Then, suddenly, Warner turned gray, and then transformed on stage into a nude, buxom woman and flew off.” Now THAT’S political theatre, kids!
– cpd
I was at the event, took quite a bit of video too. Mark Warner’s avatar did not tranform ” into a nude, buxom woman” as you quote.
There’s a lot more interesting potential to using virtual worlds for political organizing and politicking. Choosing the cheap shot shows a lack of understanding of how virtual worlds are going to be a growing aspect of e-politics.