Daily Digest: Is Obama Too Top Down?

The Web on the Candidates

• Since we poli-tech geeks are obsessed with Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, Flickr, wikis, and the socnets to track politics and collaborate, it’s only natural that many of us are hoping that the next president is obsessed with them too. PBS’s Mark Glaser offers some fine suggestions for how our next president could use participatory media to engage the public beyond the geeks. All the goodies are there — they should blog or Twitter, put policy ideas online in wikis, and be transparent (he also thinks our own 10Questions platform could be used for real-time chats). The adoption of just one idea would be groundbreaking; imagine if the next president was a Twitter addict! (“Making my way to the podium. God I hate press conferences.”)

• A few weeks ago the folks at GOP.com produced the Hillary Clinton Spendometer to track Hillary Clinton’s spending proposals. Now that he’s sorta kinda the Democratic frontrunner, the GOP has presented Barack Obama with his very own Spendometer. Clinton is at $888.6 billion, while Obama follows closely behind, with $874.35 billion in proposed spending. The Clinton graphic was widgetized to make it easy for bloggers to add it to their sites; we couldn’t find a widget for the Obama version, but the GOP does add a bunch of data alongside their giant thermometer image.

• Much of the country took yesterday off to relax, be with family, and shop. But Why Tuesday’s Jacob Soboroff, the ever-vigilant critic of national holidays that don’t include electoral politics, looked at how President’s Day has evolved into a day in which the USPS takes the day off but endless commercials advise us to buy more stuff. If we can make this day — which has localized versions around the country — a national holiday, why not make election day one too?

The Candidates on the Web

• In what is probably one the best and only comparisons of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s organizing philosophies, Obama supporter Shaun Appleby boils things down to the writings of Saul Alinsky, the Chicago organizer who inspired both candidates and was even the subject of Clinton’s honors thesis. Since the post was written by a supporter, it also acts as a chronicle of Obama’s growing organizational strategies. A similar piece by a Clinton supporter — or, better yet, an impartial observer — would be a fitting balance.

• Ron Paul Internet Director Justine Lam and Finance Director Jonathan Bydlak spoke to a class on Internet and Politics at George Washington University last week, explaining their open approach to online campaigning. It’s a good debriefing about how Paul used the web to get much farther than he would have without it. The video of the event (there are more clips here) has pretty shaky audio, and there aren’t many surprises for those who’ve been following the Paul phenomenon closely. But one mention of Barack Obama’s operation being too “top down” raised the ire of some DailyKos readers, most of whom rightly point out that that it’s, uh, Obama who’s leading the the Dems for the nomination and Paul who’s, well, not winning anything. As Ben Smith fairly points out, “In principle, [Paul’s team has] a point about the power of relinquishing control; in practice, it’s hard to fault Obama’s online team.”

• If you’ve never volunteered for a campaign you might wonder what the heck all of those volunteers working on field campaigns are actually doing. Obama Volunteer Gene Koo, writing on Off the Bus, walks us through the process using a variety of war metaphors (“THE BATTLE JOINED: HOW TO OUTFLANK ENTRENCHED POSITIONS”). So how does this offline GOTV connect to online organizing efforts? We want to know about onffline action here, people!

• I can’t help it: There’s a primary on March 4th in my home state of Vermont, and Sen. Patrick Leahy is endorsing Barack Obama. You can hear the mp3 of his pro-Obama message here (yes, Vermonters do have TVs, though they’re apparently still relying on radio for their political messaging.) He’s also being endorsed by ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who are driving “ObamaMobiles” around the state to generate support. Ah, Vermont. (Thanks, Ben Smith)

In Case You Missed It…

John McCain may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with a huge delegate lead and backing from both Bush Sr. and Jr., but Ari Melber points out that his success has failed to produce any bounce online.

Are we seeing the birth of a new kind of mass, networked political mobilization happening before our eyes? That’s the argument made by Isaac Garcia, CEO of Central Desktop, which has been working with the Obama campaign helping manage its thousands of grassroots volunteers.

There’s a playful drive afoot to draft law professor, free-culture guru, and PowerPoint maestro Larry Lessig to run in the April 8 special election for the open seat in California’s 12th congressional district. Thing is, Nancy Scola writes, “Congressman Lessig” might not be as far-fetched as it first seems.