Daily Digest: 7/18/07

The Web on the Candidates

• Want to ask the Democratic candidates a question? Have the rules of YouTube/CNN debate got you down? Try submitting a question to the Yearly Kos website. The annual netroots conference is soliciting submissions from readers for questions that will be asked of the candidates at a presidential forum (Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson are all slated to attend), but, as Jeffrey Feldman writes, because the organizers can't ask every submitted question, Feldman suggest questioners turn to their communities. "Thinking about submitting a question? Try posting a diary on the subject first, leading a discussion with a group of people interested in your topic, and then working together to generate a few great questions." This approach ensures that "each question we pose will come from individuals, as well as the online communities where we participate in political debate." Maybe YouTube and CNN -- who are restricting the YouTube community's ability to vote for its favorite submitted questions for next week's debate -- could take a cue from this approach.

The Candidates on the Web

• Rudy Giuliani is participating in YouTube's Spotlight series this week, and I have no choice but to be honest: it's probably the worst entry in the series thus far. I'm actually wondering if Rudy knows what this whole YouTube whatchamacallit is in the first place. In his video, which resembles a late-night infomercial, complete with cheesy royalty-free music, Rudy outlines the thinking behind his 12 Commitments pledge. "Leadership is all about being willing to express ideas and being willing to tell people the direction in which you believe the country should go... it's part of being honest in politics, it's part of being direct in politics," he says in his usual rapidfire manner. The commitments themselves cover a range of conservative talking points, from "I will keep America on offense [sic] in the Terrorist's War on us" to "I will cut taxes and reform the tax code." So how can we, the voters, participate in this week's Spotlight? Does he want us to send in videos expressing our commitments? Does he want our opinions on his? Sort of. Rudy hurriedly finishes the video with a disengenous-sounding ask to visit his site. "Please contact us at Rudys12Commitments.com. We would love to have your ideas, your thoughts about our 12 Commitments, the things you can see, uh, that we should add to it, the improvements, the cr... whatever you have, just please contact us at Rudys12Commitments.com. Thank you very much," he says quickly. At the site, you can sign a "12 Commitments Pledge," make a contribution, or fill out a form to let the campaign know what you think. Your idea goes straight to the campaign; no other supporter will see it, and it's as removed from YouTube as can be. Sigh.
• Apparently taking a tip from the Mike Bloomberg school of campaigns, Hillary Clinton is sending a DVD to Iowa Democrats this week that shows her discussing how she'd end the war (Bloomberg sent a videotape to every New Yorker when he ran for Mayor in 2001). The video features a plug from former Iowa Governor and national campaign co-chairman Tom Vilsack and a meeting with Democrats in Muscatine Iowa (at "Strawberry Farm"). Check out that down-homey music playing and midwestern folksy feel! Sending a physical DVD is a smart move -- no matter how much the influence of the Internet is changing politics, sometimes a physical object can cut through the clutter, especially when campaigning in Iowa.
• As we reported Monday, Ron Paul showed up at Google last week for an interview with YouTube's Steve Grove, answering questions uploaded on YouTube. As is tradition, Paul also sat down for a talk with Google employees. Interviewed by VP Eliot Schrage, Paul talked for over an hour about his constitutionalist philosophy, his position on the Iraq war, and much, much more. If you have the time, grab a coffee, a quite corner, and a copy of the Constitution and spend an hour with Paul.