The Web on the Candidates

• Barack Obama is continuing to get hit hard by the progressive netroots. Wired’s Sarah Lai Stirland finds some serious criticism of Obama’s inclusion of anti-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin at a campaign rally on Obama’s social networking site, and he’s also being criticized for an advisor’s suggestion of a pardon for Scooter Libby. Because of these and other incidents, Obama fell to third place behind John Edwards and Chris Dodd in a DailyKos straw poll, the first time he’s fallen so low. The netroots have seemingly lost their patience. “Obama seems to believe that if you say ‘change’ a thousand times something magical happens. Maybe he can learn about leadership in the spring, when he’ll have more free time,” OpenLeft’s Matt Stoller told the Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas.

• In a major faux-pas that will will surely raise the ire of Ron Paul supporters across the web, conservative blog RedState.com has banned Ron Paul supporters from posting on the site. Blogger Leon Wolf (who until recently blogged for Sam Brownback), told readers, “Effective immediately, new users may not shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion. Not in comments, not in diaries, nada.” The problem, Wolf undiplomatically says, is that can be “annoying, time-consuming, and bandwidth-wasting responding to the same idiotic arguments from a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans…” On TechRepublican, techPresident contributor David All agrees with Captains Quarters’ Ed Morrissey that the ban is a mistake. All, who calls himself a “modern media consultant,” is encouraged by Paul’s level of support online. “He is the people-powered Howard Dean candidate of 2008 which I’ve been saying we need to ‘prove’ the importance of an effective Internet strategy,” David writes.

• The folks behind ronpaulgraphs.com have been consistently rolling out new ways to twist, chop, and chart data. One nice little addition: a graph showing daily fundraising totals for the fourth quarter. Yesterday’s haul of about $165,000 was Paul’s biggest day yet.

• Full disclosure: I love Mashable, the tech site that offers all kinds of tips on how to tweak your browser, be a better blogger, and waste tons of time playing with new technologies. They also like lists. This morning they’ve posted “30+ Resources for US Politics on the Web,” a guide to the best sites for political information, news, networking, and fundraising data. It's a good list to get you started on the path to online politics. Go ahead, waste some time.

• In a new video, Why Tuesday’s Jacob Soboroff lays out his plan for going to Iowa to get the candidates to respond to the group’s Candidate Challenge, in which they want the candidates to suggest how they would fix America’s voting system. Part of reforming the electoral process is education, and Soboroff is perfect at explaining the details of the Iowa caucuses on camera. Mr. Wizard, anyone?

The Candidates on the Web

• Chris Dodd, who is fast becoming a netroots darling, will be on FireDogLake today to discuss his opposition to FISA, which has sudddenly thrust him in the spotlight. Danny Glover at Beltway Blogroll has a good roundup of statements of support for Dodd from some netroots biggies.

• Meanwhile, Dodd blogger Matt Browner Hamlin breaks down the results of the DailyKos straw poll in which Dodd finished second. It shows a huge rise from virtually no attention to 21% of the vote, likely because of a loss of faith in Barack Obama and Dodd’s continued stand against the FISA bill and his support for restoring civil liberties.

In Case You Missed It…

The Republican National Committee just launched a new online game called Scariest Democrat. Complete with creepy sound-effects, the site drew 65,000 visitors by 4pm on its first day, rivalling the DNC’s recent online campaign for S-CHIP. But DNC internet director Josh McConaha says the numbers aren't all that impressive, and he gives chapter and verse on why. In the comments, former RNC e-campaign director Patrick Ruffini jumps in, and he and McConaha mix it up... writes Micah Sifry.

Micah gives a 10Questions.com update: The New York Times Editorial Board weighed in with a big statement on their support for 10Questions.com yesterday. Plus, nine more videos were added to 10Questions Monday, bringing the total to 56. More here.

Mitt Romney has started to advertise online in a big way, runing over 22 million Web ad impressions in September, writes Kate Kaye.

In a matchup of website market share among the candidates, Ron Paul beats Stephen Colbert, but Bill O’Reilly gets more traffic than anyone.