Daily Digest: The One with Obama's VP Pick!

No, not really.

The Web on the Candidates

• The Age of Instant Response Dawns: In the period between breakfast and dinner yesterday, John McCain's inability to total up the number of homes he and his wife Cindy own went from a story on Politico.com to a full blown campaign meme. The flames were fed by "Seven," a 30-second ad whipped together by the Obama campaign's press team. The spot has since garnered a startling half a million views on YouTube. Compounding the response: creative content thrown together by third parties, like this Google Earth tour of las casas de McCain, jokey man-on-the-street interviews from the DNC (Q: "Have you ever forgotten how many houses you own?" A: "No, never"), and widely circulated clips of Obama surrogates like Virginia Governor Tim Kaine hammering away on the story. After a lull of no more than a few hours, the story was picked up by the traditional press from ABC News to the Christian Science Monitor. McCain fired back with equal rapidity through spirited campaign spokesperson quotes and a video spot cheekily called "Housing Problem." The ad, currently at about 200,000 YouTube views, hits Obama for the circumstances surrounding the purchase of his Chicago home. #

• C-SPAN Gets Even Cooler: The ESPN for political geeks, aka C-SPAN, has unveiled two impressive new hubs for its Republican and Democratic convention coverage that integrate a remarkable array of outside content streams, from YouTube to Twitter to Qik to third-party blog coverage. (Ignore the bugs; some of the sites' kinks are still being worked out.) TechCrunch's Mike Arrington has high praise for this webbier C-SPAN, but take Mike's comments with a grain of salt -- he seems to think no one watches C-SPAN! Mike, we think you need to round out your social circle with some dorkier friends. #

• Getting Out the Gamer Vote: Tapping into the political potential of America's millions of gamers has long been the dream of some digital-minded politicos. There are signs that the tapping has begun. Microsoft has just announced a groundbreaking partnership with Rock the Vote that will allow players to register to vote using the popular Xbox Live system -- one way of getting more young voters to the polls. (h/t Brett Schenker) In other political gaming news, Michael Tate explores how Microsoft's willingness to give up some programming control raises political possibilities. Related: Dungeons & Dragons aficionados for Obama. #

• Netrooters Issue Joint-Joint-Joint-Joint-Joint-etc. Statement: After Open Left's Chris Bowers dismissed the very idea of the "netroots platform" -- an experiment in community drafting a Democratic mission statement -- sixteen of the folks working on the platform went all Voltron on Chris and collaboratively issued a statement pushing back against his criticisms. #

The Candidates on the Web

• Veepstakes for the Rest of Us: Somewhat inexplicably, a good many otherwise bright-seeming people are being fooled by the many fake Obama VP text announcements that have of late been floating around in the digital ether. The confusion does point to an unmentioned aspect to the brilliance of Obama's decision to SMS out his vice presidential pick. The playfulness of announcing a major decision through text message makes it seem like we're all playing along -- even if the emphasis is on playing. Hang on! I've just received word on my cell phone that Obama's running mate will be Chinese gymnast He Kexin. Hmm, strange pick... #

• UR SOOOO FUNNY: 236.com's investigative unit has obtained the IM transcript of an anxious conversation between the leading Democratic vice presidential candidates, and you would not buh-lieve the things these people talk about. I don't generally find online humor all that well, funny, but this one had me laughing. #

• E-lection '08: Take ten minutes today to watch this BBC's World News America segment on how the Internet is shaping the election. The Beeb's investigative team goes admirably deep in exploring the people digitally influencing the U.S. presidential election, from Blue State Digital's managing partner Tom Gensemer to the Texas-based team behind some of the most pointed anti-Obama online efforts. #

• It's Prediction Time, Kids: You're the best election prognosticator in your office, right? You're gal Charlie Cook stops in the street to ask "which way will Virginia go?!" Then get thee over to the Washington Post's election contest. Accurately predict how the final electoral map will appear on November 5 (universe willing) and you might well win yourself a $500 Best Buy gift card. Come on, it's not like you're getting anything done while you wait for team Obama to just finally text you already. [Please note: employees of the Washington Post and Diebold are not permitted to participate in the contest.] #

In Case You Missed It...

Big Media Micah Sifry was on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show yesterday to discuss both the text message announcement of Obama's VP choice and the campaign money trail, and Micah's inaugural post for NPR's Sunday Soapbox has gone live with a look at the role of race in online politics.

Also, on the convention front, Micah asks why the upcoming Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention are proving to be so darn conventional; when, asks Micah, will these political events enter the connected age? On that note, for the next two weeks, I (Nancy Scola) will reporting live from the DNC in Denver and RNC in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Feel free to pass along hot tips, stories you're particularly interested in, and, of course, invitations to great events.