The Web on the Candidates

“Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November…”

• The big news in online politics today is Ron Paul’s record-breaking fundraising numbers (from now on the feat will be known as “Paul’s Haul.”) Raising more than $4.2 million from more than 37,000 donors, Paul set the record for online fundraising in a day and raised close to what he raised in the entire third quarter. The figure puts him much closer toward his goal of raising $12 million by the end of the year.

• The previous Republican record holder for a single-day haul was Mitt Romney, who raised $3.1 million in one day on January 8th. Not only did Paul shatter that record, but the money was raised entirely online.

• Paul supporter Trevor Lyman organized the effort, creating a site This November 5th named for the day that 17th-century wannabe-regicide Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British parliament building. However, Pop-culture enthusiasts probably recognize it as the day that the protagonist of “V for Vendetta” blows up, er, the British parliament building. “Remember, remember, the fifth of November,” goes the refrain, which has been adopted by the Paul supporters. ABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf profiles Lyman, noting that Lyman took the call in a Miami Starbucks, “where the whir of the barista making his lunchtime latte could be heard in the background.” It’s pretty significant that the fundraising strategy wasn’t event organized by the campaign, but by a supporter.

• If you’re not convinced, check out the charts at RonPaulGraphs.com. They all share the visual theme of a relatively flat landscape punctured by an impossibly tall bar or vertical line.

• MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong, a veteran of the Howard Dean campaign who’s thought by many to be a guru of this kind of action, was caught unawares by Paul’s Haul. When the Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas called him for a comment, Armstrong responded, “Damn. Wow. Um, that’s pretty awesome,” he said. Maybe this is the moment when we stop comparing Paul to Dean and begin appreciating him on his own terms?

• But Armstrong did write an essential analysis of the breakthrough moment, pointing out that Paul’s online strategy is the only one in 2008 to make total use of the distributed web. “Look how, on his website, how Paul pushes his supporters out onto the social networking platforms of Technorati, del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Stumble Upon, and Newsvine,” Armstrong writes. Since Paul only uses those sites, he doesn’t have to build out is out (inevitably inferior) sites. It’s a stark contrast to the Democratic sites, which “are much too inward-looking, and are walled off websites for the most part.”

• Champlain College (Vermont) professor Elaine Young has been producing in-depth studies of the candidates’ web strategies. Her current victim: none other than the Paul-man. After spending no fewer than 650 words just reviewing his web site, she moves on to his presences on MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Eventful, Meetup, Twitter, and Google search. Then she looks at all of the unofficial Paul sites that have popped up. Impressively, impossibly thorough.

• Meanwhile, big media continues to underestimate Paul’s popularity, and to respond to the actions of trolls and spammers by issuing blanket bans. Case in point: FOX News’ Sean Hannity’s online forum is now closed to Ron Paul supporters. “Due to the troll raid following the activities of Nov 5th posting of Ron Paul threads has been suspended,” writes Lee Kington, the moderator. Good! That’ll show ‘em! What are they gonna do, raise $4.3 million in one day?

The Web on the Other Candidates

• From the annals of politicians just not knowing anything about technology, comes a story about Nebraska Congressman Adrian Smith. According to DailyKos diarist Eric Nebraska, Smith has a problem with an anti-Smith blog called Smith Watch. The blog is hosted on Blogspot, so his office has come up with the innovative solution of blocking any incoming links from the Blogspot domain. For those who don’t know, the Google-owned Blogspot is a giant blog host. Beyond anything else, blocking incoming links from that domain is just opening yourself up to ridicule, in which Smith Watch’s Lisa Hannah happily indulged. Smith’s office isn’t talking, so Hannah had to speak with the firm that runs Smith’s site, who haven’t convinced her that something funny isn’t happening.

The Other Candidates on the Web

• Stephen Colbert, who was not allowed on the South Carolina ballot but was included in the GeniusRocket Primary, has dropped out of the presidential race. “Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history — only 10 votes — I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle,” said Colbert. “It is time for this nation to heal.”

• The Politico’s Erika Lovely rounds up the state of politics in Second Life, noting that while Newt Gingrich has made good use of it recently (“It’s a tremendous policy opportunity,” he says), most of the presidential candidates have yet to step foot in the virtual world. Political action has been happening for some time in the 3-D space, perhaps reaching its mainstream zenith with the appearance of former Virginia Governor and then-presidential candidate Mark Warner in 2006. But only Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich have set up official presences there. Whaddya say, fellow avatars? If we all band together to protect them from griefers, maybe the nominees will show up!

• The San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli takes a closer look at some of the web strategists working on the campaigns and discovers a trend: they’re almost all “young.” Ron Paul’s eCampaign Director Justine Lam is 26; Joe Rospars, Barack Obama’s director of new media, is 26; and Mindy Finn, Mitt Romney’s eCampaign Director, is also 26. Their ages and focus on online campaigning clashes with the demographics in Iowa, writes Garofoli. “The average Iowa caucus voter is slightly younger than Paul, and few analysts can predict whether autumn’s virtual glow of Facebook warmth will morph into support on a chilly Jan. 3 in Iowa.”

In Case You Missed It…

In an effort to get students more involved on 10Questions
, we’ve added a new section to the site called “Student Voices” and added TeacherTube as a co-sponsor and video uploading platform. Welcome TeacherTube!

Ron Paul supporter Avery Knapp, Jr. describes the effort by fellow supporter Trevor Lyman to help Ron Paul raise $10 million in 24 hours. While it fell short of that number, the campaign did end up breaking some records.

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