WASHINGTON (AP) - A bipartisan group of prominent political strategists on Tuesday announced an Internet information venture designed to interact with America's opinion leaders and serve as an antidote to the right-left clash that typifies political discourse on the Web. The site, called Hotsoup.com, will debut in October and will be edited by Ron Fournier, former chief political writer for The Associated Press.
Hotsoup is the brainchild of some of the best-known practitioners of partisan politics in Washington, including Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004, and Joe Lockhart, former White House press secretary under President Clinton and a senior adviser to Democratic Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.
Despite their political backgrounds and distinct party affiliations, Hotsoup founders said the site will provide a nonpartisan forum not just for politics, but for topics ranging from science to popular culture, from business to current affairs.
"We all share the belief that partisanship is largely driven by a debate that lacks information and lacks context, and we think this community can provide both of those things," Lockhart said.
The effort is ambitious and risky, using the Internet to create an online social network similar to the popular teenage Web retreat MySpace.com. Hotsoup's target audience will be opinion leaders around the country who use the Internet to help make up their minds.
The Web site would connect these local opinion leaders with high- profile newsmakers who influence national opinion. Newsmakers would post essays, respond to reader questions and debate the issues. Participants could rate the arguments, much like readers post book reviews on Amazon.com.
Hotsoup's founders estimate there are 30 million such opinion drivers scattered across the country whom friends, neighbors and fellow citizens rely upon for advice.
Citing public opinion research, Fournier said, "At least one out of 10 Americans tell the other nine what to buy, how to vote, where to eat, and that literally is the group of people we're going after."
The co-founders are the sole investors in the venture but said they aim to attract significant advertising, particularly from telecommunications companies, financial institutions, auto makers and publishers.
"The opinion leaders are a great target," said Steven Marc Edwards, a professor at Michigan State University who has written extensively about advertising and the Internet. "They are really the hubs, they tend to talk to a lot of people and they tend to be confident about their opinions."
Among other Hotsoup co-founders are Mark McKinnon, who directed President Bush's ad campaign; Carter Eskew, chief strategist to Al Gore's 2000 campaign; and Allie Savarino, an Internet advertising veteran and president of Sisterwoman.com, an online social networking site for women.
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On the Web: http://www.hotsoup.com
