The Web on the Candidates

• Roll Your Own Webathon: We noted a while back the curious case of an anti-Sarah Palin email sent by two New York women to 40-odd friends that attracted a reported 150,000 responses. That humble missive has evolved into a multimedia campaign, with a webathon organized by two web video producers scheduled for Thursday. Using Ustream's video chat tools and sponsored by People for the American Way and Republicans for Choice, the Women Respond to Palin webathon will feature performers (known and otherwise) reading the notes that flooded in as a result of the initial email. As an interesting twist, the funds raised off of Palin ire won't go to the Obama campaign, but to the non-profit orgs backing the event. The eight-hour event should produce enough footage to spawn piles of web videos, which might in turn provoke scores of emails, which then...well, you get the drift. #

The Candidates on the Web

• Dorm Room #514 for Obama: In these final days, the presidential campaigns are scrambling to reach out to undecideds or soft supporters and convert them into votes. Our own Micah Sifry has taken a peek inside Barack Obama's peer-to-peer calling operation that's leaving phones ringing off the hook in swing states; a senior Florida Republican, the New York Times recently noted, reports getting seven calls from Obama volunteers and nary a one on behalf of John McCain. And the Hartford Courant's Arielle Levin Becker has a look at how Yalies who, armed with cell phones, MacBook Pros, and iPod Touches packed with policy papers, can turn any campus space into a virtual phone bank. But more than just a high-tech turn on an ages-old campaign tactic, the Obama approach has turned these college kids into a self-organized, self-driven campaign outpost. #

• Battle of the Beltway Geeks: With both presidential candidates making noises about putting their own stamps on tech policy in their administrations, San Jose Mercury News' Brandon Bailey offers a policy comparison piece. But if face-to-face confrontation is more your style, Wired magazine and the New America Foundation will be hosting a "Tech Smackdown" in Washington DC this Thursday afternoon featuring policy advisors from both campaigns. (Really, a "smackdown"? Was "Xtreme Tech Policy Championship Deathmatch 08" trademarked? Too dignified?) In McCain's corner, former Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin. And in Obama's corner, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt. No worries if you're not in Washington -- you can watch the whole thing on the Internet. Which should be extremely helpful for those undecideds who, four days before the election, are basing their vote on which campaign can throw down the most audacious wireless spectrum reform plan. #

• How Open an Obama White House?: Now that Obama has won -- the WebMarketing Association's Web Award for the better of the two candidates' websites, of course -- thoughts are turning to how a President Obama would use his much-vaunted Internet savvy to actually govern. Maybe an O Administration might update FDR's fireside chats and launch interactive web talks with the citizenry, suggests Financial Times' Rebecca Knight. (Free registration required to read the FT piece.) But some old Washington hands, reports Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown, are understandably skeptical that Obama could really bring forth the open and transparent Washington he's described while leading an administration during some extremely trying times. Says one: "There are meetings that go on all over the place, everyday. I can’t quite believe that all of them will be up on the Internet."#

In Case You Missed It...

Nancy Scola has an update on the Twitter Vote Report project and marks a new milestone in the effort: a joint press release between the Election Protection Coalition, Rock the Vote, and techPresident. Remember, to say current on TVR, check in at twittervotereport.com or follow @votereport on Twitter.

Micah Sifry fills us in how many millions of hours of video the presidential campaigns have put up on YouTube and, with a little help from some friends, calculates the tremendous amount all that free content might be worth to a candidate.