You Betcha: The Internet Reveals the Real Sarah Palin

Okay, so here's my theory. It's the social Web that is responsible for the swift and stunning downfall of Sarah Palin. From darling of the Republican base to media punching bag in what is certainly record time - even if we're counting in Internet years.

The Republicans managed her roll-out very carefully - no press conferences, no uncontrolled interviews, just the sit-downs with Katie and Charlie. Now in the old days, what would have happened? Some relatively small number of millions would have seen the interviews, there would doubtless have been some analysis the next day in the MSM, and then everyone would have moved on to the next issue.

But because of the path of information flow, only a few million would have been exposed to these gaffes. And their impact would have been muted because of limited exposures and attention spans.

Fast forward to Web 2.0, a.k.a. the "social Web." From Katie to YouTube in 0 to 60. Propagated on blogs, Digged over and over, shared globally - if not gleefully, you know we're in a social influence cascade when more people watch Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin over and over on the Internet than they do live on Saturday night.

Online, we're learning that it's relatively easy for just a small number of users to trigger explosive network effects.

Now that's what I call change.