The Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas loves inventing new terms. He brought us “socnets” back in March. Today he introduces us to OPOs. That’s “online political operatives” for those who don’t follow the lingo.

Vargas’ piece is an excellent report on the state of the online operations at the top three campaigns in each party. (It even caught my wife’s interest; back in February she met Romney staffer Stephen Smith, whose photo with Mindy Finn is on A1 of the Post.) The one area I wish Vargas had explored — and maybe he’ll do it in another story — is the role of the Internet among second-tier candidates. John Hawkins is doing great work for Duncan Hunter and Leon Wolf is plugging away for Sam Brownback.

I also want to take issue with Vargas’ assertion that “In many ways, the roots of online political campaigning can be traced back to Joe Trippi’s office.” That’s not entirely true. You can ask Trippi; he’ll tell you so. When I interviewed the former Howard Dean online guru last month about online fundraising, he told me that he looked to John McCain’s insurgent campaign in 2000 for lessons. It was McCain who used his website to 1) raise money, 2) stream video, and 3) offer tools for activists. See for yourself on the Wayback Machine.