It's been a busy week in the 2008 presidential campaign--Hillary Clinton launched her online "conversation" (see David Weinberger's spot-on critique) and went to Iowa; John Edwards also did an online video web-chat that he calls a "live online discussion"; Barack Obama laid low and let the explosive growth of one unofficial Facebook group (now at more than 158,000 members) speak for him; and Bill Richardson formally announced his campaign launch.

Not surprisingly, the Democratic candidate who showed the most growth in online grassroots support, as measured by trends in the number of friends they have on their MySpace page and in incoming blog posts to their campaign site was Richardson, whose MySpace numbers were up a whopping 61,100% and blog posts up 285.8%. Of course, those numbers have to be put into context. A week ago, Richardson had only one friend on MySpace; as of last night (Sunday, January 28), he had 611. His incoming blog link tally, as measured by Technorati, jumped from an anemic 92 to a still feeble 355. But, hey, you have to start somewhere.

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) launched his presidential campaign, via web video, in a hail of controversy regarding comments he made in reference to fellow Democrat, Senator Barack Obama (IL). Within hours, the audio of his remarks made it to YouTube, as did a clip of FOX News -- no stranger to an Obama controversy -- airing Biden's clarification. The senator later joked about it with The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart. (Video here.)

In South Carolina, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is determined to win as he picked up the support of forty State House members -- all caught on video -- via Laurin Manning of South Carolina '08.

Social network scholar Fred Stutzman takes a look at Barack Obama's new social networking site and how all candidates should view social networking sites: "Companies like Youtube and Myspace succeeded because they embraced openness... The candidate who embraces this mentality will make the most sense to the netvoter, as our sensibilities have changed significantly over the past few years."

Eve Fairbanks thinks that candidates' plunge into MySpace and Facebook and other facets of online pop culture isn't cool at all: "assimilating Internet tactics doesn’t mean you have to assimilate Internet culture, too: the unhinged language, the fake intimacy, the studied hipness." Who's to blame? Howard Dean: "Political consultants and aspiring candidates were wowed by the way Dean used the Internet to create energy and momentum behind his upstart campaign. They envied the way young people, inspired by the concept of the Web as 'people power,' were transformed into Deaniacs in droves."

The Web on the Candidates

The Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas writes about the presidential candidates' use of video, and the reviewers that pick it apart. Specifically, he interviews Jeff Jarvis, James Kotecki, and techPresident's own Micah Sifry about what the candidates still have to learn about online video. Online viewers want something different than they're getting from the candidates; while one of Hillary Clinton's recent Hillcasts had about 15,000 visitors, a popular video of YouTube featuring Clinton singing an out-of-tune national anthem has been viewed over 1.1 million times. A lot of viewers are looking for that human touch: "Look at how the candidates are talking in their videos. With a few exceptions, they're mostly looking sideways, not talking directly to the camera. The important thing about this medium is it's very human and intimate. A voter comes across and clicks on you. You should talk to that voter and look at him in the eye," says Jarvis. Micah agrees. "There's something fundamentally different about video online. Viewers are looking for that rare, unscripted, revealing moment, to get a little sense of who these candidates really are."

The Web on the Candidates
Jeff Jarvis posts a great video on PrezVid grading most of the candidates on their use of YouTube, and showing us some of the best and worst moments from their videos.  John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich both get a 'B,' the highest grade Jarvis hands out.  Edwards is "the best of the bunch" with a video of a speech to a labor convention.  "He's passionate and the video is well-organized," Jarvis says.  The Kucinich video actually stars his British-born wife, and Jarvis likes it: " Best candidate spouse accent. Best candidate spouse hair. She’s quick, newsy, and charming. What’s not to like?"  Most of the others were average at best.  Obama "keeps making Sally Field videos: They love him, they really love him," and Giuliani is "pathetic" for putting up audio of Steve Forbes' endorsement, paired with a photo of Forbes.  Check out Jarvis' video for the report card.

The Hotline's Blogometer notes a growing frustration with Barack Obama among the netroots community.  Linking to the Daily Kos and MyDD,  the Blogometer says that "Obama has not done enough to separate himself from the Dem establishment on netroots bread and butter issues like the war and economic populism."  

For all of our talk about social networking and how it is changing politics, today we were treated to an up close and personal example of how social networking is changing our most basic social interactions.

Within hours of the tragedy that occurred today at Virginia Tech, ABC News had published a story entitled “If You're OK, Please Update Your Profile” which quoted someone named Carlos 'Mohawk Monday' Fernandez asking, “Many of us are all worried about our friends, so lets do this. If you are okay! Please update your status in facebook to say something like ‘I'm okay’.”

With cell phones spotty because of the massive volume of calls, and concrete information even more scarce, Facebook became a vital way of letting family, friends, and even strangers know that you were OK.

The Web on the Candidates

OpenSecrets.org has built an amazing Flash tool that graphically represents the links between the top five contributors to presidential campaigns and the candidates. The candidate and donor names are featured in bubbles, and when you click on, say, Mitt Romney's bubble, you'll see his top five donors (Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, HIG Capital, Kirkland & Ellis, Marriott International). Click on the Goldman Sachs bubble and you'll see who they've contributed to (Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Barack Obama) and on and on... [via epolitics]

Unbeknownst to most followers of the candidates, John McCain is a huge Beach Boys fan. He recently displayed his love for the '60s group by singing his favorite song, "Bomb Iran," at a recent campaign stop. No, I'm kidding! He was actually asked by a supporter how he would deal with the threat of Iran, and he nervously laughed and said, "You know that old Beach Boys song 'Bomb Iran?'" and proceeded to sing "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran..." Now, inevitably, the clip is on YouTube, and in the YouTube era it could be a pretty damning document. AirCongress has more, including an odd statement from Arizona Rep. John Shadegg, who came to McCain's defense.

The Web on the Candidates

Over forty people have posted videos in response to John Edwards' question, "what are you going to do to bring about change?," which is part of YouTube's Spotlight series. Almost all of the respondents are younger (21-40-ish) voters, and while some of them have concrete ideas for change ("I'm getting my MBA in policy"; "I teach science") others are frustrated that Edwards put forth no ideas of his own and simply asked us what we would do ("I want to know why you're doing what you're doing"). I'm looking forward to seeing Edwards' responses -- let's hope he's offers something more substantive this time.

We've known for months now that Facebook users have been supporting the presidential candidates on the site in the same way they're befriending them on MySpace, but Facebook hasn't made the number of supporters for each candidate public, until now. The leader in supporters is, predictably, Barack Obama, with over 64,000 supporters. The next one down the line is Hillary Clinton, with over 19,000 supporters. The Republicans are slow to get on the Facebook boat, Mitt Romney has just over 6,000 supporters. Shira Toeplitz at the Hotline has the scoop, noting that we'll be seeing a lot of fluctuation in these numbers. "Since some of the facebook profiles started updating yesterday, each candidate (except for Brownback) has lost between 10 and 60 'supporters.' That fact exemplifies that what many online strategies have been preaching for months: Just because they're your facebook friend, doesn't mean they actually support your candidacy." Also, why are all of the candidates part of a network called "Election 2006"? Stay tuned; we'll be charting these numbers soon.

The Web on the Candidates

MySpace and Mark Burnett (producer of TV shows like Rock Star: INXS) are working together on a new reality show that will search for an independent presidential candidate. "Contestants in the show, set to launch in early 2008, will meet the public and interact with supporters, protesters and others. An interactive 'town hall' will give MySpace users and TV viewers a chance to rate their performance." The show is still looking to partner with a network, though something -- I don't know, intuition maybe -- tells me that Rupert Murdoch-owned MySpace will ultimately find a partnership with Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox...

A bipartisan alliance has signed a petition asking the Republican and Democratic National Committees "To Ensure All Presidential Debate Video Can Be Legally Put On Sites Like YouTube." The petition was started by Stanford professor and copyright activist Lawrence Lessig, and it seeks to make certain that all debate footage (which would be officially owned by the networks on which the debates appear) be put into the public domain or licensed as "Creative Commons," Lessig's alternative copyright vision. It was signed by the who's who of tech/politics, including techPresident's own Micah Sifry. See the post for the complete list.

The Web on the Candidates

James Kotecki is calling Hillary Clinton to task for not having posted a new "Hillcast" video in over six weeks. When she first started to post videos, they were a bit stilted and tight, and her call to "let the conversation begin" was contradicted by the sense that we were being talked at, not talked with. As Kotecki notes, her videos were better and more relaxed over time, but then they just stopped. Why has she stopped, he wonders, and when can she "let the conversation continue"?

To gaffe or not to gaffe? Joe Biden is making waves again with his blunt talk, this time telling a supporter at a fish fry that he would shove the Iraq funding bill down Bush's throat. While the comments below Ben Smith's Politico post about it are critical of Biden and the remark, Biden's own team is proud of it, and is promoting it on Biden's YouTube channel.