The Web on the Candidates

• The New York Times’ Katherine Seelye profiles two online ventures — one new-ish, the other yet to be launched — that are trying to change the way politics is covered. One is Off The Bus, which is already making good use of distributed journalism techniques, drawing on the help of dozens of volunteers to produce multi-faceted stories. The other is Scoop08, a soon-to-be-released site that will cover the election with the help of over 300 student journalists. Its advisory board includes folks like Frank Rich of the New York Times, Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, and even Joe Lieberman. Both projects are brimming with idealism; let’s hope it stays that way.

• The Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas confirms that there will indeed be a Republican CNN/YouTube debate. It will be held on Nov. 28 in St. Petersburg, Florida, but so far Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have yet join in. TechRepublican had confirmed this a couple of months ago, and back then David All had written that Mitt may in fact join in. Kevin Madden, Romney’s press secretary, told All that Mitt “just isn’t in a position, yet, to say ‘yes.’” So what is it now Mitt? Will we see you in Florida? I hear it’s too hot for snowmen down there.

• Is Stephen Colbert’s continued popularity on Facebook a slap in the face to other “legitimate” candidates, or are we comparing apples to oranges? Jose Antionio Vargas gets both sides. “Colbert is entertainment and entertainment always outrates politics. People want to be entertained. That’s all this means,” Michael Cornfield told Vargas. But many viewers trust Colbert more than the new media and politicians he skewers, complicating what it means to “friend” him on Facebook. The 2008 race and the web gets weirder…

• For their Candidate Challenge, Why Tuesday is asking the candidates to respond to questions about election reform on video by the end of the month. Jacob Soboroff has been busy hunting down the candidates in Iowa and elsewhere, and yesterday he posted the first video: a response from Ron Paul (who else?). He also got Barack Obama to respond by catching him at the MySpace/MTV event, and has caught up with Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo. Alas, Fred Thompson turned the group down. Come on Fred? Why do we vote on Tuesday?

The Candidates on the Web

• Barack Obama participated in the second MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogue yesterday, and the word on the street is that he was a hit. Although I wasn’t the only one to experience technical glitches that prevented me from watching online. Jose Antonio Vargas also had a hard time viewing the event, it seems others watched without a hitch. Obama was asked the top question from 10Questions.com, about net neutrality, and netizens were pleased that he offered his unqualified support for the issue. Now that we’ve had two Democrats participate, let’s see some Republicans in the online hot seat!

In Case You Missed It…

Yesterday I liveblogged Barack Obama’s appearance in the second MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogue. Unfortunately, I could view the video (my computer just wouldn’t do it). But I could listen, and vote.

10Questions.com traffic surged over the weekend, ever since we announced that the top question as of yesterday morning would be asked of Senator Barack Obama during yesterday’s live MySpace/MTV dialogue. Participation on 10Questions.com surged, with the total number of voters topping 15,000 (that’s up about 9,000 from Friday), the total number of votes hitting 46,000 (up 19,000) and the total unique visits for the weekend at 17,000, more than ten times Friday’s traffic.

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