The Web on the Candidates

• Is There a Pill for That? Some Sort of Cream?: MTV, you might remember, just recently started accepting political ads. The first was a fairly standard anti-Obama spot from a group called Let Freedom Ring. Titled "Both Ways Barack," it would have been home on any network. For the next spot to run on the network, MoveOn is trying something, um, different, and perhaps more targeted to the younger set. The ad pulls a head fake, making you think the kids featured are wrestling with some sort of, how should we say it...herpes, some other STD or one kind or another? In truth, the kids are afflicted with "hope." Saucy, MoveOn! There's a fairly confusing bit of the ad involving Corey's best friend from "Boy Meets World" which implies that this condition called hope can turn an egg into a chicken. (Is that a reference to those eggs we carried around in high school to teach us how hard it is to care for a baby? Do they still do that? Seems so quaint in this day and age.) Anyho, it's a fun spot. The ad will run this week on both MTV and Comedy Central. Future Majority's Kevin Bondelli recently wrote a post about how younger people not in college are some of the toughest voters to hit, and while we're not sure who's watching MTV these days, this might be a good way to reach young folks not touched by outreach geared towards students and young professionals. #

• Breaking Into Prime Time: We noted on Friday in this space about how Get FISA Right anti-surveillance activist group which got its start online is now attempting to break the surly bonds of the Internet and reach a wider range of voters in their homes, via cable TV. Sarah Lai Stirland of Wired writes up how SayMe.tv is doling out small slices of airtime on MSNBC, CNN, and other cable stations for what is, in some cases, little more than the price of a sandwich today. TV has long been the domain of campaigns, large PACs, and perhaps a few of your better funded activist groups like MoveOn (see above), but this service could potentially open up the medium to the average Jane or Joe. The group's 25-second pro-fourth amendment ad, Sarah reports, has already been funded to run in Charlotte, Dallas, and Los Angeles. #

The Candidates on the Web

• RNC Doesn't Care for Obama's Friends: The RNC has a new parody site out, a snarky mock-Facebook designed to shed negative light on who Obama runs with. His "FriendFeed," for example, links off to profiles of his supposed buddies like Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Chicago political activist Marilyn Katz. BarackBook.com is a bit of political jiujutsu, using a candidate's perceived strengths against him -- in this case the image of Obama as a new kind of cleaner politician, a tactic that has deep roots in the GOP, going back to Karl Rove and then to Lee Atwater before him. The RNC is proving itself consistently willing to mess around online, having some fun and seeing what might work. The question is, are they free to do so having got online organizing nailed down, given that conventional wisdom is that the Bush '04 race demonstrated the GOP's mastery of voter targeting and GOTV? Or is stuff like BarackBook a diversion and waste of resources? #

• IM IN UR BROWSER, STEALIN UR DOLLERZ: Remember the new RNC browser toolbar we've covered here in the Digest, the one that collects a few pennies for the GOP every time a user does a Yahoo search or buys something online? We linked to sources that tied it to FreeCause, a Boston-based web vendor that has used the tool for advocacy groups like Susan G. Komen for the Cure? Well, that's not quite right. The rights to the technology, it turns out, are actually owned for all political purposes by John Weaver, a former member of McCain's inner circle. Who cares? Great question! We do, because we're noticing a trend on the online right. The GOP isn't content to stick with the same ol' online tools, and has its eyes open to (1) spotting and then (2) co-opting stuff that seems promising in commercial or advocacy spaces. We know, we know -- it's just a browser add-on. But this toolbar is a different way of shaping the party faithful's user experience online. Beyond raising coin for the Grand Old Party, it also includes a tiny message inbox, contribution tracker, drop-down RSS feed reader, issue guide, and action center. #

• Why It Matters: It's worth remembering that John McCain was a fairly agile online fundraiser back in the 2000 campaign, writes Garrett Graff of Washingtonian, but he and his team seem to have checked out of the web at about Web 1.2 or so. The McCain organization hasn't embraced the the interactive Internet, says Garrett, and the fact that the candidate is a self-described "computer illiterate" doesn't inspire much confidence in the idea that they'll soon get with the times. #

Barack Obama | FISA | John McCain | John Weaver | MoveOn | MTV | RNC
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