I missed Hillary Clinton’s Town Hall meeting held online and on the Hallmark channel but luckily Dan Manatt has a review up at techPresident.

It took candidate electronic town halls – and TV/Web simulcasts – mainstream.

We’ve come a long way since Ike did the first candidate town halls, “Ask Ike”, in 1952. What the Clinton campaign did was fully fulfill what Ross Perot prophesized in 1992 – the electronic town hall. Notably, candidate Bill Clinton actually did an electronic town hall in spring 1992 in Ontario, California, with remote audiences participating from Fremont, Fresno, and elsewhere by remote feed. But that was held during the “sitzkrieg” period of the 92 campaign, so it went largely unnoticed. I’m not aware of a fully interactive town hall since – McCain did satellite feeds in 2000, but they were not two-way. The Dean campaign may have, but overall its InternetTV strategy was memorable mostly for the utter failure that was Dean TV – a system way too cumbersome for users.

The 2000 GOP and 2004 Democratic conventions had a few satellite feeds, but again, not interactive. In fact, I think you’d have to say the most interactive convention moment was Nancy Reagan at the 1984 GOP convention waving to Ronald Reagan, watching from his hotel suite, who was beamed on to a jumbotron above the podium in Dallas.

Hillary’s Town Hall simulcast may not have been the first – nor even conceptually novel – but it will be remembered as groundbreaking. And credit where credit is due – a campaign linking in 22 remote locations – no small feat.

Check out the post for more and check out Hillary Clinton.com for a replay of the Town Hall. If I get a chance to watch I will include some thoughts later.

Quick Thoughts
OK I started watching. First I LOVE that everyone calls her “Hillary” rather than a formal title. Very homey.

I like the setup. Clinton is in the center of the stage with a live audience behind her and connected through projection TV with people across the country. It would be great to see every candidate up like this.

Just a style thing, Clinton needs to learn to not talk through applause lines. She does it in the debates too, she seems to genuinely like answering questions so much that she ignores applause lines and wants them saved until she is done. However by then people are applauding out of habit rather than out of exuberance.