The Web on the Candidates

• Newsvine has created an application called Election '08 for Facebook's Platform that lets you add a candidate or a party to your profile (I've heard that Facebook is working on a native app that will function similarly). To date, almost 18,000 votes have been cast and the most-added Democrat is Barack Obama and the top Republican is -- you guessed it -- Ron Paul, and Obama is the overall leader on Facebook with 21% of users adding him. Fifty-two percent of users have chosen just the Democratic Party, versus 43% for the Republican Party and 3% for "Other." Where'd the other 2% go?
• Over at TechRepublican EM Zanotti is hoping that Fred Thompson can bump the "Kucinich knock-off, Ron Paul, from the 'Internet candidate' podium" by continuing to use online video, blogging, and social networking, Twitter, and all of the other fun things the internets have for sale. Some accuse Thompson of being lazy by implying that he won't pound the pavement to campaign, but come on, isn't lazy just another word for innovative?

The Candidates on the Web

• Hillary Clinton's video challenge to her supporters to help her select a campaign song has generated a ton of attention. Clinton Internet director Peter Daou says almost a million views of each video and over 100,000 votes cast in the first round, according to an article from the New York Times' Andrew Adam Newman. But the stunt has also inspired a backlash, with Rush Limbaugh suggesting she use Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back," and others suggesting songs like "Cold As Ice," "It's the End of the World as We Know It," and "Maneater." But Daou says the negative response "wasn't unexpected," but ultimately the most popular suggestions are positive. "This is about the will of the people," he said.
• Ron Paul's web site has been completely overhauled. It now actually looks like a candidates' site. It has the familiar navigation menu running below the header, he can take credit card donations directly from the web (!), there's a prominent email sing-up box on the front page, and featured front and center are videos, blog updates, and links to social networking sites. It's all done without making the site look too busy, and everything works the way it should (the videos load to the left of the links without reloading the page using this thing called javascript). One complaint: the pink-ish/peach-ish/beige-ish color used in the menu bars. It's like Martha Stewart 2.0.

In Case You Missed It...

Ruby Sinreich investigates a new site called Amigos de Obama and discovers that the Spanglish-singing community is embracing Obama.

Josh Levy and Micah Sifry take a look at Obama's early entry on Facebook's Platform and wonder if some inside information was passed to the Obama campaign before it was given to anyone else.

Barack Obama | Facebook Platform | Fred Thompson | Hillary Clinton | Ron Paul
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