The Web on the Candidates

• Palin Drives Bits and Bytes: The surprise selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate helped, the campaign reports, to raise more than $4 million online in a single day -- more than four times their previous record for a 24-hour period. But that's not the only online activity the Alaska governor has provoked of late: someone using an online handle similar to the name of her infant son busily fleshed out her Wikipedia page in the hours before McCain announced his pick. The changes to Palin's profile consisted mostly of the addition of positive details, rather than subtractions of negative ones; for example, the Wikipedian tacked a note on the page saying that Palin was known as "Sarah Barracuda" during her high school basketball days. #

• Protest Watch: The Republican National Convention's activities in St. Paul have been largely suspended today due to Hurricane Gustav, but the protests around the convention aren't taking a break. Officials raided one of the planning stations earlier this week, and the world seems to be keeping watch: video of the raids have been posted on YouTube and the progress of the protests is being constantly Twittered. The RNC '08 in Minnesota may well be the site of the first major convention protests fully live-documented with social tools. We're not referencing anything like way back in 1968, when protestors directed a great deal of their efforts towards gaining the attention of major news crews. Think 2004: neither YouTube nor Twitter were launched until after the Boston and New York City conventions. #

The Candidates on the Web

• How Delegates Network: Announcing from St. Paul yesterday that the Republican convention's activities will be altered in response to Gustav this week, McCain campaign chairman Rick Davis said that the GOP are blessed with the nimbleness of being able to update delegates via text message and email -- simple tech tools that, in this crazy week, will give them an invaluable extra bit of political flexibility. #

• Natural Disaster 2.0: Barack Obama made news with his mention that his campaign may mobilize its multi-million-member email list to help volunteer efforts around Hurricane Gustav. Two points: (1) that's great, and a pointer to how a President Obama could use his enormous online organization to govern and (2) it's important to keep an eye on follow through here. Announcements like this make quick-hit great stories and blog posts, but the trick is assessing whether candidates and campaigns make good on this sort of talk. #

• Wrinkles Be Damned: Both major political parties have embraced high-definition video when it comes to their conventions in attempt to make the events more real and accessible for the audience outside the convention hall. The Democratic National Convention Committee has, for its part, posted last week's speeches from Denver in HD. (More on the DNC's HD efforts here.) And the podium for the Republican National Convention is backstopped by what the convention's president Maria Cino said on CNN yesterday was perhaps the largest HD screen ever used. #

  I Know Where You Surfed Last Session: The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey had a provocative article in this weekend's paper on how the presidential campaigns are tailoring their web ads based on the clicking habits and web histories of their targets. For example, writes Whoriskey, people who have been to BarackObama.com get far more Obama campaign ads served up next to their search results, even if that search is for the very latest in celebrity gossip. If you're confused about how such "behavioral targeting" might work, let Mr. Penguin explain it to you. #

• And the Rest (Quick Hits): Jews Vote is a new progressive website that aims to "find out what is unsettling so many people in our community" about Barack Obama. (via Ben Smith) A cell phone video interview with Sarah Palin conducted by MTV News Street Teamer and Alaskan Dani Carlson on Super Tuesday shows Palin praising Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. And a surreptitiously-recorded plane conversation between former DNC chair Don Fowler and a South Carolina congressperson, now posted on YouTube, catches Fowler joking that Hurricane Gustav's arrival during the Republican Convention goes to show that "God is on our side." #

In Case You Missed It...

Dave Witzel points to the "Little Known Facts about Sarah Palin" meme popping around the Internet.

Some joker named Nancy Scola takes a look at the Obama campaign's text messaging ploy that, they say, garnered them 30,000 valuable cell phone numbers at Invesco Field Thursday night; highlights how the McCain campaign missed the opportunity to define Sarah Palin online; considers the privilege that comes along with a press pass and what it might mean for the future of citizen journalism; and, with the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets now set, asks if Joe Biden and Sarah Palin are aware of the Internet.

Hurricane Gustav | John McCain | Republican National Convention | Sarah Palin
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