Here’s a very interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt regarding the impact of online tools on political campaigns and the political process. Consistent with Google’s mission of organizing the world’s information, they’re aggregating polling information and hope to provide an interface for voter registration and ultimately online voting.

But perhaps more interesting is Schmidt’s remark about our love affair with “the Internet election,” and how it’s evolved since the mid-1990’s. He points to the 1996 election of George Allan (VA) to the US Senate, and its subsequent impact on the Bush (Sr) presidency, as one of the first outcomes affected by the Internet, and briefly delves into what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of online tools related to politics, its ability to upset the entrenched nature of traditional media.