What has been overlooked in the analysis and discussion of this year's presidential campaign is the interference of the Internet in general and social media in particular.

Those who say Donald Trump has changed the rules or is a "new" kind of candidate overlook the fact that Hillary Clinton is, too. Both candidates have leveraged the Web to achieve their respective positions. Since 2009, Trump (and his staff) has fired off more than 33,000 tweets; Clinton joined in 2013 and has posted a little over 8,400 tweets.

Social media forces the consolidation of like-minded individuals into large groups or networks that exhibit classic group-think. The emergence of intractable thinking can be attributed to divisions created by social media mechanisms. The way things emerged in a short period during the Arab Spring show how powerful this can be when manipulated by experts with an agenda.

This is why countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and others are very suspicious of social media networks, which they fear will be used to topple governments. The Chinese felt the effects of this in 2014 with Hong Kong's so-called "Umbrella Revolution," which took shape on social media.

Clinton and Trump each have their cache of experts who toy with social media mechanisms and known that a campaign of manipulation can have extremely fast-acting effects. The Arab Spring, the turn of events in Ukraine, and the Umbrella Revolution are just a few examples.

To me, this means the 2016 election will not be determined until the last few weeks when an event—real or imagined—is blown out of proportion in a very controlled way using social media manipulation. Both sides are skilled enough to do it, which makes it even more interesting. It will be like two fast-draw gunslingers in the old West.

This is a completely new element in a US presidential election. In 2008, nobody fully understood this stuff. It's like early nuclear bomb theories. Before the first detonation, some people thought one bomb might set off a chain reaction that would blow up the world. It didn't, but nobody imagined how powerful these bombs would become, either.

Stay tuned for the social media bomb that is sure to hit before Nov. 8. Like any blast, it is not going to be pretty, and there will be fallout.

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