Mark Shields writes at CNN that while the other Democratic candidates try to figure out this Internet thang, what's really fueling Dean's support is the message he brings. Finally. Now, Shields still doesn't have it completely accurate, in that he only considers a particular slice of Dean's message. But that's ok, progress is progress.

To listen to experienced and able politicians in the campaigns of Dean's Democratic rivals this week was to hear men searching for the "trick" that had transformed the under-funded underdog into the well-heeled contender. Most were sure they had found Dean's gimmick: It was his mastery of the Internet. The Vermonter has used the Web effectively to recruit contributors and supporters.

[...] Make no mistake about it. It is not the medium -- radio, TV or the Internet -- which enlists and converts voters to a cause. It is the message -- what the candidate stands for and communicates -- that touches and moves voters.

However, even if the other campaigns truly believed that it was just the tools, then wouldn't they be employing them, too? Where is John Kerry's interactive weblog? Where is Lieberman's Zephyr Teachout?