The Web on the Candidates

• While we’ve all been speculating about John McCain and Barack Obama’s VP candidates, it looks like the they’ve been keeping their own notes. Obama’s short list was leaked to humor site 23/6’s Lee Camp, and there are some surprises to be had. Number one on the list: Gary Coleman. Wait a minute, is this for real…? (Thx Ben Smith)

• Picking up on our brief review of the DNC’s McCainPedia, Web 2.0 skeptic Craig Stoltz writes that the un-wiki site “exploits public familiarity with a hip new communication form (in this case, wikis, which are used for group content creation and editing) and then aggressively misapplies it.” Others agreed. “This perpetuates that silo approach to communication, and Web 2.0 is about enabling the voice of the people and their opinions,” Central Desktop CEO Isaac Garcia told Wired’s Sarah Lai Stirland (the Obama campaign uses Central Desktop to coordinate field volunteers). However, no one has questioned the efficacy of the site from an oppo point-of-view. Indeed, it will make it easy for Democrats to find all of their oppo in place. Just don’t try contributing anything.

• Videoblogger James Kotecki — who ascended from his dorm room to the swanky offices of the Politico earlier this year — teamed up with fellow vlogger David McMillan to ask a fairly taboo question: “Is Barack Obama Too Black?” What follows is some sober analysis of the ways Obama has been constructed as a black candidate by his own campaign, the Clinton campaign, and the media. It’s smart, but we miss the candidates-on-a-stick.

• Brave News Films’ new anti-McCain video continues to be one of the most popular videos on YouTube, having racked up more than 770,000 views since it was launched two days ago, and it’s the number one viral video on Viral Video Chart. Impressive.

• Bad news for Hillary Clinton: for the first time, she's fallen behind John McCain in blog mentions on Technorati. This confirms that, even though McCain hasn't been doing much with social media, the blogging public is moving on to an Obama vs. McCain general election.

The Candidates on the Web

• Meanwhile, John McCain’s own TV ads/YouTube videos have been getting a fair amount of attention, though nothing near those that are attacking him (according to our TubeMogul charts, the number of daily views hasn't changed much in the last month). The new “2013” ad has been viewed almost 74,000 times. Its message — in 2013, things are gonna be a lot better thanks to a McCain presidency — could be seen as a tad bizarre, but its positive message is mighty appealing to those sick of attack-dog politics. But don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of that too.

In Case You Missed It…

Micah Sifry asks if Barack Obama and John McCain are actually using the social media tracking tool FriendFeed to follow tech gurus and tech-politics bloggers. The answer is no; the culprit was hiding in the techPresident shadows all along!