Hillary Clinton’s position as front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination is vulnerable to an online insurgency, according to the party’s leading internet authority.

Joe Trippi, the strategic guru who helped to drive Howard Dean to the brink of the Democratic nomination in 2004, is predicting that Barack Obama or another candidate will ride an even bigger wave across cyberspace and, perhaps, into the White House. “Clinton is running a scripted by-the-numbers campaign. Her problem is that because she is so strong, she will not take risks and that will encourage other candidates to be bolder and more open with the internet,” he told The Times.

Mr Trippi, who now works as an independent consultant, said there was evidence that the internet was evolving into the most powerful weapon in modern politics.

In 2000, he said, John McCain amazed observers by signing up 40,000 supporters online to his bid for the Republican nomination.

timesonline