The Web on the Candidates

• Over forty people have posted videos in response to John Edwards' question, "what are you going to do to bring about change?," which is part of YouTube's Spotlight series. Almost all of the respondents are younger (21-40-ish) voters, and while some of them have concrete ideas for change ("I'm getting my MBA in policy"; "I teach science") others are frustrated that Edwards put forth no ideas of his own and simply asked us what we would do ("I want to know why you're doing what you're doing"). I'm looking forward to seeing Edwards' responses -- let's hope he's offers something more substantive this time.
• We've known for months now that Facebook users have been supporting the presidential candidates on the site in the same way they're befriending them on MySpace, but Facebook hasn't made the number of supporters for each candidate public, until now. The leader in supporters is, predictably, Barack Obama, with over 64,000 supporters. The next one down the line is Hillary Clinton, with over 19,000 supporters. The Republicans are slow to get on the Facebook boat, Mitt Romney has just over 6,000 supporters. Shira Toeplitz at the Hotline has the scoop, noting that we'll be seeing a lot of fluctuation in these numbers. "Since some of the facebook profiles started updating yesterday, each candidate (except for Brownback) has lost between 10 and 60 'supporters.' That fact exemplifies that what many online strategies have been preaching for months: Just because they're your facebook friend, doesn't mean they actually support your candidacy." Also, why are all of the candidates part of a network called "Election 2006"? Stay tuned; we'll be charting these numbers soon.

The Candidates on the Web

• Yahoo!, The Huffington Post, and Slate have just announced that they'll be teaming up to host two online-only presidential debates, moderated by my favorite sleepy-eyed late-night talk show host, Charlie Rose. The debates will feature real-time questions sent in my the audience and pre-recorded voter questions on video. With all three sites involved, this could turn out to be a great experiment.
• Townhall.com's Mary Katherine Ham recently interviewed Mitt Romney, asking him about his online strategy. "The truth is, if you want to get support among young voters, increasingly, they don’t get the newspaper. They get their news from the Internet, from the web," Romney said. His son Tagg "is one of those who plays a leading role to make sure we’re up-to-date with what we’re doing and we’re gonna continue to get our message out through the Internet. I spend a lot of time with folks that are bloggers and webcasters, and I want to make sure that we’re connecting to all Americans, not just the people who read the New York Times."

In Case You Missed It...

No Issues?
by Alan Rosenblatt
When Alan Rosenblatt goes to a presidential candidate website, he wants to know issues. They may want his money and his email address, but he wants to know what he would get if he gave a candidate his vote.

Rudy Widgets
by Alan Rosenblatt
Rudy Giuliani has a slick page called Rudy on Your Blog which is filled with a whole bunch of web stickers. Click on any of them and a box opens with the html code to pop that little widget on your blog. Sinfully easy.

McCain: It Was Just Amongst Friends
by Nancy Scola
McCain's response to the uproar over his "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran" joke was telling about the way this candidate is viewing is viewing life as an '08er.

Announcing Google Personal Democracy Forum Scholarships

Are you a campaign staffer blazing a new trail in online politics? A non-profit professional trying new technologies with great results? An activist with ideas about the next big thing to change elections? Google and Personal Democracy Forum are teaming up to offer registration scholarships that cover the full forum cost for forty qualified political professionals to attend this year's conference on May 18th and unconference on May 19th. Successful applicants will receive free admissions to the conference based on professional experience, passion for politics, and an interest in the use of technology.

Go here to fill out the application form. It takes less than five minutes to complete. The submission deadline is May 7th.