Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

June 22, 2004

Bull Market For Political Domains

Despite offers of as much as $135,000, the Internet domain name Bush2004.com is not for sale, Wired reports. The domain was snapped up by Brian Rodgers and he isn't selling it to the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Said Rodgers: "He's a sorry son of a bitch and I'll do anything I can to bring him down."

"The fate of Bush2004.com is an oft-repeated example of what happens when politicians neglect to snap up websites containing common variants of their name and election year. While the Bush campaign controls many of the obvious sites, including BushCheney2004.com, GeorgeBush.com, BushforPresident and GeorgeWBush.com -- the official campaign website -- other domains, including GWBush.com and Bush2004, remain in the hands of speculators and satirists."

"These days, with campaign season in full swing, speculation in political websites has spawned its own mini industry. Banking on candidates' fears that desirable domains will wind up in the wrong hands, speculators in some cases are buying up domains containing names of prominent politicians even before their electoral intentions are made public."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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