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WASHINGTON -- John Kasich, the Fox News contributor and hyper-energetic former congressman from the Columbus suburbs, hit a milestone last week, nearly two years before the big election in which he might run for Ohio governor.

At 9:51 Thursday night, he got his 4,000th Facebook friend.

He and other Republicans are taking a page out of a playbook used to huge success by Barack Obama in his presidential campaign, with a digital communications strategy admired widely -- and soon to be expanded.

President Obama and the Democratic Party are preparing to fire up those communications tools to promote their policy agenda. Since Democrats' goals include gaining seats in the U.