Why is Blue State Digital in Iraq: Update

Rory Cooper /

Yesterday, we learned that the State Department had flown a delegation of new media experts to Iraq to consult with government officials and entrepreneurs on digital technology. The delegation made sense for several reasons, including the vast amount of digital talent that had been assembled. However, we couldn’t understand why Blue State Digital was in Iraq? This was a company that unlike AT&T, Twitter, Google, MeetUp and Wired, was relatively unknown and not an industry leader in really anything.

It was then discovered that Blue State Digital is the official digital arm of the Democratic National Committee, Obama for America, and countless other liberal organizations, trade unions and political candidates. So why did they merit the distinction of serving in this delegation over say, GoDaddy.com executives, or other non-partisan website developers? Hoping it wasn’t about securing government funded contracts and business for a political pal, we waited to hear the reason. Today we have an answer.

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