Mathew Gross - Web Maven to John Edwards

In today's Greensboro News-Record is a nice profile of Mathew Gross, the internet guru for the John Edwards' campaign. Those of us who are refugees from Howard Dean's roller coaster quest of 2004 remember Mathew's efforts fondly. For many of us, if not most, our first substantial contact with the Howard Dean campaign came through the now legendary web presence that Mathew invented.

Back before Gov. Dean announced his high octane opposition to the war, and his intention to evict the "current occupant" from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mathew was a riverboat guide in Moab, Utah. Equal parts outrage and irrational idealism caused him to drive 2,300 miles non-stop to the front door of Dean's campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vermont.

Mathew's intention was to become the Dean campaign web maven, a function that no one working on the campaign seemed to know they needed, and for which his one meaningful credential was writing for the popular blog MyDD.com.

The one thing that prevented campaign security from evicting his unannounced presence from Burlington headquarters was calling out desperately, and at the very top of his lungs, "I write for MyDD!!!" Joe Trippi, the campaign manager and a fan of MyDD, heard his plea and called back, "You're hired!!!"

To this very day this is the one recorded instance of anyone ever receiving preferential treatment because of a left wing blog addiction.

For those, like me, who drank Dr. Dean's Kool-Aid the rest was a story of high hopes, boundless enthusiasm and ultimately a terrible crash landing. However, during that brief exhilarating arc of success, Mathew Gross' marvelous web invention had me, and millions like me, acting together for a common cause. Here in North Carolina we attended Meetups together, petitioned for access to the ballot together, and we flocked to South Carolina packed five in a car to knock on doors together.

For reasons I do not know (perhaps that lovely woman in the picture is the reason?) Mathew Gross now lives in Greensboro. Not exactly next door to John Edwards' campaign headquarters, but it's close enough - as if geography really matters anymore. And now he's an official part of the progressive population of North Carolina with a blog of his very own called "Deride and Conquer." As you might guess, his blog is liberal and politically inclined, but not as "NC-centric" as our own BlueNC.com.

Anyway, all the best to our Greensboro neighbor. May he have all the success that might have been his once upon a time in Vermont - a place that now seems so very far away and a million years ago.