The Web on the Candidates

• Wow, what a night. It looks like the fun will continue for at least another month, which should be enough time for us to decipher just what the heck happened yesterday. This is one of the first times the poll results different significantly from online trends; our Technorati chart shows a huge spike in blog mentions for Barack Obama in the days leading up to yesterday’s primaries; our Hitwise charts show a gentler ascent, but still clearly indicate an Obama rise. Yet, as we know, Hillary hung in there.

• At least things are clear-cut on the Republican side: John McCain (finally) wrapped up the nomination, and Mike Huckabee exited the race, bumming out his small-but-passionate band of supporters and our own Zephyr Teachout, who had so much fun Huck-watching earlier this year. But don’t fear: Ron Paul is still in the game.

• What's up with John McCain's landing page? From GOP nominee to No Country For Old Men...

• Undecided Texans would have found both Hillary and Obama’s sites confusing yesterday. Off the Bus’ Pam Pohly writes that Obama’s site reached last-minute voters more effectively, though that didn’t seem to matter in the end.

• The Obama-fans behind Hillary, Step Aside — an online petition asking Hillary to bow out — might have to amend their message.

• We weren’t near a cable-connected TV for most of night, but no matter: as usual, Twitter was at least as informative as pen-wielding Wolf Blitzer. Especially helpful was the Campaign2008 feed, updated by the folks at Virtual Vantage Points.

• Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert is impressed that a protest campaign led by liberal bloggers against an article by the AP’s Nedra Pickler — which was characterized as a “hit piece” on Obama by Firedoglake — was so successful. Noting that the hastily-organized campaign generated almost 15,000 letters in a couple of days, Boehlert writes that we may be seeing a “new era in progressive media activism.” Ex-Chris Dodd web guy Matt Browner Hamlin agrees, arguing that it’s the job of online activists to hold media accountable. “This is how the netroots - and hopefully soon more people who might not identify directly with the online progressive base - can stop bad media narratives, shoddy reporting, and smear attacks from the right on Democratic candidates, from President on down,” he writes. We should add that the same holds true for activists on either end of the spectrum.

• Obama may have lost in Ohio and Texas, but he’s got hip-hop community on his side. First, impresario Russell Simmons endorsed Obama; then rapper/mogul Jay-Z did a robo call. (Hat tip, Ben Smith)

The Candidates on the Web

• Shades of OJ? DailyKos diarist Troutnut is accusing the Clinton campaign of intentionally darkening Barack Obama’s skin tone in her “red telephone” ad (the question first came up in another diary by Jthomascronin, but Troutnut did the heavy lifting). According to both posts, in the debate footage used in the ad Obama’s skin is much darker than in the original footage. Americablog’s John Aravosis confirms the disparity, and posts screenshots to illustrate it. Some commenters in DailyKos point out that, in line with its serious, security-focused tone, the whole ad is dark, and another commenter points out that Obama’s response ad, which uses the same footage, is also dark. The Clinton campaign responded by saying that Troutnut looked an unofficial, YouTube-ified version of the ad, but Troutnut responds that the original looks as dark as the copy. And on and on. Whatever the merit of these accusations — we’re not sure what to think at the moment — it’s clear that this campaign is just getting uglier and uglier.

In Case You Missed It…

Michael Whitney noticed that Hillary brought some short & simple class to Twitter last night - she thanked both Rhode Island and Ohio immediately after winning each state.

Hillary won Ohio, and Morra Aarons in psyched.

Micah Sifry was impressed with a talk from Justine Lam, the internet director of the Ron Paul campaign, about how and why Ron Paul succeeded on- and off-line, and he writes up his notes from her panel at Politics Online.

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