Alright. It's already quite clear that I'm safely ensconced in the Svejnar camp. If you didn't already know that, then punch this and this and enjoy a cup of coffee, on me. Were a popular election for president to be held today, my ballot would most certainly be with the good professor...a man who would assume the distinguished mantle of the ceremonial office with aplomb and due class.

Pan Svejnar would take the conch shell of the presidency to rise high above the pettiness of what passes for parliamentary politics on the Lesser Side. He would face the world with a newfound dignity that would make us, the Czechs, the envy of our various European neighbours, handling those media scrums and interviews like a seasoned pro.

But don't take my word for it.

Those of you who haven't heard the man speak, see if you can cajole a few English sentences out of the man and be convinced for yourselves. Accent-free bilingualism is really, really cool.

Still, it's funny, you know.

For some bizarre reason, there remains a critical mass of Czech citizens who still aren't cottoning onto this fact. They don't understand that the various things we -- via our elected and unelected leaders (eg. Klaus) -- say here in our Central European playground will, within seconds, reach across the divide of oceans and continents, channelling through the mp3 players of young people in locales as obscure as Wellington, New Zealand. Press a button here, and like a pebble tossed into a still pool, there are repercussions elsewhere.

We dwell in a living, breathing wired-up ecosystem. Il Duce (Mr. Klaus) doesn't want you to believe this, because, well, he knows what's best for you.

Okay, Dad...

At present -- for those of our anglophone readers at this site -- Jan Svejnar is out and about on the road, Kerouac-ing it up with his campaign team (as Madame Svejnarova is back Stateside) as part of the run up to February 8th's presidential contretemps.

He's pressing the flesh with former Ostravan factory workers, kissing Czech babies in Zlin, and knocking back several shots of Becherovka (chased with Pilsner, 'natch) in those brightly-lit, barf-coloured tableclothed former Commie hospody in regional towns all around our fair Middle Republic. All this in a bid to get his name out there as part of what is being termed Svejnar's "American-style" stump campaign. And so far, it's doing the trick.

Recently, as part of my spirited email exchanges with Svejnar's campaign team, I expressed reservations about the lack of an electronic newsletter or a blog at the Contenda's campaign website. With about a month remaining before the tip-off, there's still heaps of time left to influence Czech public opinion -- ideally favourably -- for Mr. Svejnar. A nice chunk of time left to get the Czech people onside, enough time left to do wonders with the sycophantic hordes of the public broadcaster's reporters and scribes. The potential, as you'll clearly agree, is enormous.

With the speed with which both good and, more likely, bad, words get out there in the marketplace, it's a right mystery which Mr. Svejnar's planning team didn't consider this when laying out his website's tech specs. Mind-boggling, actually. So I promptly fired off a missive to Svejnar's campaign team to reinforce my previous statement that some effort on this front needed critical attention.

When you think about it, it wouldn't take all that much additional effort to effect it, you know. In our age of cookie-cutter web design, just a few clicks here and there and -- poof -- you're up and running. Good as gold.

To be sure, there will be those native Czechs who will claim my suggestion is pointless. I can just hear the litany of usual suspects ringing in my waxless ear, enough to make me want to run to the WC and hurl:

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"Czechs don't think like that. It's not possible. You don't understand the culture."

"We don't need your American ideas here!" (Mr. Svejnar's, I presume, would be included in that rubric).

"Mr. Klaus is going to win anyways, so what's the point?"

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Buck up!

Not furnishing the electorate with all of the technological tools presently on offer is bad campaign strategy, in my opinion. In a frenetic-paced world where anything can happen at a moment's notice -- where the fates of candidates, nations, and the world can switch on a dime -- why not account for all the possibilities?

Viral marketing is king in the 21st-century. Newsletters and blogs are part of it. What you say here matters way over there, and you, my friends, are very powerful indeed. What they say there influences what happens here. It's that ecosystem thing I was talking about.

Why our presidential candidates won't do something like the brilliant people over at Keta-Keta simply boggles my mind.

It's dually insulting. Once, to you, as electors, and then to the Czech mentality, which is deliciously sophisticated.

So hop online and let them know how you feel.

If a non-Czech Czech can do it, so should you.