There's an interesting article over at Business 2.0 today that explores the concept of how paid search advertising might have the ability to impact political campaigns and election outcomes. The article explores the failure of both major political parties to embrace pay per click advertising as a way to reach out to undecided voters.

The article does an excellent job of examining the reasons why political campaigns have been slow to embrace paid search advertising. Among the reasons? Lack of understanding of how paid search even works. One political consultant who was interviewed for the article was surprised to learn that paid search campaigns only resulted in fees if the listings were clicked on. "So you don't pay unless they hit you?" asked Joel Bradshaw, a political consultant working on Barbara Boxer's Senate campaign in California. "That is pretty damn good."

Politically charged search terms like "gay marriage," "swift boat controversy," and "Iraq" could easily be linked directly to position pages on candidates Web sites in order to better explain candidate's positions.

For the full story, check out the article: Political Campaigns Are Missing the Boat on Paid Search