Daily Digest: McCain's Online Drubbing

The Web on the Candidates

• John McCain is “taking a serious drubbing” on YouTube, writes the Los Angeles’ Times’ James Rainey, who cites video after video on YouTube that attack McCain for being less than a straight-talker. “Six of the top 10 videos returned by a ‘John McCain’ YouTube search Thursday pegged the 71-year-old as inconsistent, extreme, wooden or a combination of the three,” Rainey writes. Ouch. We continue to ask: where is the voter-generated video in support of McCain?

• In his invaluable weekly report from across the political blogosphere, the Blogometer’s Ian Faerstein analyzes the fallout from Barack Obama’s “gaffe” in which Obama said that his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz (in fact, his great-uncle helped liberate Buchenwald). The story broke on the conservative blog Ace of Spades HQ and quickly gained traction among conservative blogs, eventually leading to a retraction from Obama. But Obama’s considerable army of online supporters pushed back, and has far as we can tell the story has fizzled.

• Writing at Future Majority, blogger alicecheshirecat takes stock of the outdated Franking Rules that limit the outreach Members of Congress can make to their constituents. She suggests that the Hill get hip to wikis, which could help usher in a new wave of government-citizen interaction. When will Congress enter the 21st Century?

• Here’s a reminder that if you live in New York it’s your duty to go to the Forum on Participation and Politics Online next Wednesday, June 4, at 6pm, at the NYU Law School. It’s sponsored by the good folks behind OneWebDay and will feature a knockout panel, including techPresident’s Andrew Rasiej and Zephyr Teachout and citizen journalism guru Jay Rosen, and it will be moderated by PdF’s Allison Fine. Go here for more details.

• A personal/professional note: today is my last full day as associate editor at techPresident and Personal Democracy Forum. My good friend and colleague Nancy Scola will be taking over the Daily Digest baton for the next few months. I’m confident that this daily roundup of snark, geekiness, and tech/politics obsession will be safe, and even more informative, in her hands. As for me, I’m moving on to Change.org, where I’ll be the managing editor of a social issue blog network that will launch later this summer. It’s an exciting move, but my departure from PdF is bittersweet; I love these guys. Expect to see me poking my head in from time to time.

  Kids, please be nice to Nancy and continue to send your tips, suggestions, and love to techpres AT personaldemocracy DOT com or to Nancy at nancy AT personaldemocracy DOT com.

The Candidates on the Web

• Newt Gingrich is becoming quite the online presence. Yesterday on The Next Right Patrick Ruffini reported that Gingrich’s American Solutions organization had gathered more than 100,000 signatures in 48 hours on a petition for domestic oil exploration. Ruffini is excited about the attention the petition’s getting, but points out that the long-term value of these petitions lies in the MoveOn-like ability to “galvanize activists around a cause using viral marketing.” So far, the right hasn’t been so good at that part. Maybe this is a turning point.

In Case You Missed It…

We've reposted a first-person account from Bruce Wilson of the making of the viral video of Pastor John Hagee that precipitated Senator John McCain's decision to renounce Hagee's endorsement of his candidacy. Wilson is a co-founder of the E Pluribus Media blogger collective.

In this week’s favorite political videos, the Democratic candidates show their inner Puerto Rican-ness by dancing in the streets, drinking the local beer, and speaking accented Spanish. We’ll see how they fare on Sunday. Also, a curious Memorial Day message from John McCain and a glimpse at Hillary Clinton’s early life in elementary school.