“You could have a candidate announce in September and raise $30 million on the internet to challenge Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary.” Nicco Mele lobbed this prediction into the crowd at a recent Century Foundation event titled “#2012 Election: Social Media and the Future of Politics.” Video of the event can be found here.

Co-panelist and Personal Democracy Forum co-founder Micah Sifry wrote up his reactions to Mele’s statements at TechPresident.com where he repeated the skepticism he showed on the panel, doubting that any major Democrat would step in and attempt a social media-fueled primary challenge to the sitting President. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen,” Mele replied, “but I can see a path to doing it pretty clearly.”

I could see a national Democrat like Al Gore or Howard Dean decide to do it and raise the money....A Democrat who would have a national profile would not have to struggle to gain name ID and could use the Internet to in sixty days raise a competitive challenge for the Democratic primary.