The Web on the Candidates

• Jay Rosen and Arianna Huffington have released more details about their joint citizen journalism project that will offer an alternative to horse-race journalism by opening up the process of covering the 2008 race to voters across the country. They're calling it OffTheBus, it will launch some time in mid-July, and they've hired two veterans of online politics, Amanda Michel and Zack Exley, to lead the project. In the tradition of open sites like the DailyKos or TPMCafe, anyone will be able to contribute via their own blogs, and the strongest material will filter to the front page. It will also feature original blogging focused on all of the candidates and original investigative reporting. Check out Jay's post for more; this promises to be an exciting, and much needed, antidote to who's-leading-in-the-polls mainstream coverage of the candidates.
• Due to the abnormally long campaign season, the campaigns are increasingly turning to online ad campaigns, writes Amy Schatz at the Wall Street Journal. While candidates will still spend the bulk of their advertising budgets on TV ads, they're using the same strategies online as with traditional media. "Campaigns are following the same pattern with online advertising as they have in the past using traditional media: Begin by targeting the most active members of the party's base and shift later to more general ads targeting the broader electorate," Schatz writes. John Edwards is spending the most on blog ads, surprisingly followed by Chris Dodd and, not so surprisingly, Hillary Clinton, and most of the candidates are using Google AdWords. "I've become a search evangelist," says Becki Donatelli, who's directing online fundraising for John McCain.
• JD Lasica of Ourmedia has announced a series of Remix Politics channels on the site. "Interested in creating a channel about Hillary, pro or con? Or think your candidate or political party or social cause is getting short shrift? Then pull in media from anywhere on the Web and show it off on your channel," Lasica writes. The idea is to "give people tools and source materials to create video commentaries and mashups," and Ourmedia will provide resources, tutorials, vintage clips, and audio files that will be at media-mashup-makers' disposal to help them create the next "1984" video.

The Candidates on the Web

• Steve Peterson at the Bivings Report reviews four standalone, message-driven sites that are designed to help the candidates distinguish themselves on the issues. Looking at Bill Richardson's No Troops Left Behind, Joe Biden's Head to Head 08 and Plan for Iraq, and John McCain's Mitt vs. Facts (not yet launched), Peterson says the strategy could potentially help "campaigns to make headway by creating a special site to build a community around a specific issue and to project a clear message that can standalone from the rest of the campaign platform."

In Case You Missed It...

Patrick Ruffini thinks Hillary's new Sopranos-spoof video has a shot at going viral even though "it's 'overproduced.' And she's acting. It's nowhere close to authentic. But it's funny as hell. And self-deprecating." It's yet more evidence that the viral video gap between the Democrats and Republicans is widening.

Hillary Clinton has announced the winner of her theme song contest in a new video that spoofs the final Sopranos episode. "With Hillary as Tony and Bill as Carmela, it's bound to get people talking," says Fred Stutzman.

Yesterday Alan Rosenblatt attended Adfero Group's Winning in a Web World forum at the US Chamber of Commerce. The topic of this forum was "How Associations Engage Online in a Presidential Election."

Chris Dodd | Hillary Clinton | Joe Biden | John Edwards | Ourmedia
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