The Campaign trail winds along back-country roads, through rural farmyards and small high school auditoriums and by churches, factories and shopping malls.
In 1996, it also blasts through cyberspace.Bob Dole, Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan and other Oval Office contenders are going where no presidential candidates have gone before in the quest for votes: cyberspace.
Technically, President Clinton scrawled his signature first on the Internet's digital walls. He posted a Web page during the second part of the 1992 presidential campaign.
But that was only a scribble compared to the Internet's potential four years later to be a conduit for political messages. There are hundreds of electronic mail listservs, online discussion groups and political pages on the Internet's World Wide Web.
The offerings come from candidates, political parties, political commentators, the media, commercial online seervices and satirists.
There's even a 354-page book called "Politics on the Net" by Bill Mann to guide cybersurfers.
The Internet is the biggest innovation to sweep the political landscape since satellite broadcasting, said Richard Davis, an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.
"It provides so many possibilities for people to get information about candidates and is a new tool to link candidates and voters, and anything that provides for that link to be enhanced is valuable," he said.
What makes the Internet so attractive to candidates as a campaign vehicle is it's a relatively cheap way to reach a mass audience. Commercial online service providers such as Prodigy, CompuServe and America Online claim a combined subscriber base of 10 million users; all offer Internet access.
In October, O'Reilly Research estimated 15.7 million people would be accessing the Internet in 1996. A recent survey by Nielsen Interactive Services figured that 37 million people ages 16 or older have access to the Internet.
The truth is probably a variation of all these numbers, minus a hyperbole factor. Still, the bottom line is a lot of people are surfing the Net.
The demographics of computer users - younger, well-educated, above average income and politically active in many cases - also is a lure, Davis said.
Gretchen Morgenson, press secretary for Steve Forbes, said her candidate's Web page has received more than 1 million hits since it was posted. Candidates pay small fortunes for that kind of exposure via other media.
As a Washington, D.C., outsider, Forbes believed from the outset he had to take his message directly to voters, Morgenson said. That's meant campaigning in person, via advertisements and on the Web, she said.
The Web provides a way to have a "dialogue with an awful lot of people without the filters you get in a news story written by someone else," Morgenson said. "It's the perfect place to speak directly to the voters. It's a completely new method, and he's reaching people he might otherwise not have met."
Of course, opposing points of view are only a mouse click away. And if an opponent doesn't provide a counterpoint, there are dozens of satirical pages lampooning this year's candidates.
The spoof of Sen. Bob Dole's page advertises him as the "ripe man for the job." And 12,528 people had stumbled upon the Larry Buchanan family's Web page, dedicated to highlighting kids' movies, books and music, in search of Go-Pat-Go Buchanan.
Jabs aside, candidates are banking on the Internet to convert at least a few voters and to give them a whole new method of mobilizing volunteers - at lightning speed.
Forbes and other candidates provide telephone numbers and e-mail addresses potential volunteers can use to sign up with campaigns. Dole, R-Kan., offered visitors who sent him an e-mail message a free bumper sticker.
Those messages will undoubtedly be compiled into a mailing list of potential supporters.
Some candidates are using the Web to raise funds. For a $25 contribution, Dole's Web visitors received a mouse pad.
Candidates don't have to be well-heeled to create a Web page, another attraction of the Internet as a political medium.
"This puts minor candidates on equal par with major ones," Davis said.
Web surfers looking for political sites are just as likely to find the Natural Law Party's home page as the Republican Party's page.
Presentation is everything in this media-driven age, and that's no different on the Web. The design of each candidate's home page tries to convey something essential about the man who would be president. Forbes strives for comfortable familiarity with snapshots from the family album. Dole's page has the tone of a statesman's office. Buchanan's uses stars and strips in red, white and blue to give it a patriotic feel.
Appearance counts when wooing votes. But candidates are not alone in using cyberspace to get ahead of the competition. The media also are turning to the Internet to give them an edge in covering Campaign 1996.
The National Journal and American Political Network joined forces to produce PoliticsUSA. The comprehensive site's features range from discussion forums to news articles to a voter booth where visitors can sign electronic petitions and cast votes on issues.
Last Monday, PoliticsUSA asked visitors whether Republican contender Alan Keyes should be allowed to participate in televised debates. Cast a vote and up pops current poll results ("no" votes were leading by a 51 percent margin). Visitors could also sign a petition - selecting the version of their choice - about U.S. sanctions against Cuba for the downing of two planes recently.
Many commercial online services integrate instant democracy features in their campaign coverage as well. America Online, for instance, is letting members cast votes in a Clinton vs. Dole race. As of Wednesday, Dole was leading with 53 percent of the ballots cast.
Sites such as PoliticsUSA track candidates' treks through primaries, with state-by-state vote tallies, schedules of upcoming elections and delegate counts.
Chris Long, editor of PoliticsUSA, said the National Journal and American Political Network saw a possibility on the Internet to broadly expand the scope of their current enterprises. The Internet provides both the opportunity to provide up-to-the-minute news and unmatched audience interactivity.
In addition to Long and two editorial assistants, PoliticsUSA has a full-time staff of 15 people. The staff is tracking U.S. Senate and House races as well as the presidential contest. They'll soon add gubernatorial races, Long said.
The site is updated twice daily, with some editorial content available only on the Web site.
"The role of the Internet we're trying to develop is to provide unbiased, extensive information with commentary and analysis, but also raw information right down to press releases from the candidates themselves," Long said.
PoliticsUSA isn't the only joint collaboration on the Net. Microsoft Network has teamed up with NBC on Decision '96; Time magazine and CNN have formed the All Politics site.
"These sites have really been wonderful for political junkies but also for journalists and political interest groups," Davis said.