The Web on the Candidates

• President Bush is now quoting bloggers, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the Caucus reports.  "I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers — they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here," Bush said.  He quoted a passage that described improving conditions in Baghdad: "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."  However, the posts were written weeks ago, and were reprinted in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.  Although the Bush Administration initially stonewalled on the bloggers' identity, it was eventually disclosed that the bloggers are two dentist brothers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, who live in Baghdad, and who visited the White House in December 2004.
• Four female advisers to Hillary Clinton hosted a web chat yesterday and according to the New York Times' Patrick Healy, the message was "All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women."  The chat topics ranged from having time for the family ("...every time that I feel pangs of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president. And what a role model Hillary will be to her.") to Hillary's user of power, to the war in Iraq, to health care. 
• Arianna Huffington and Jay Rosen have announced a joint venture between the Huffington Post and NewAssignment.net to produce a citizen-powered web site covering the 2008 presidential election.  They are recruiting citizen journalists to contribute to candidate-specific blogs that will include "written updates, campaign tidbits, on-the-scene observations, photos, or original video."  "So instead of one well-placed reporter trailing John Edwards wherever he goes (which is one way of doing it) some 40 or 50 differently-placed people [will be] tracking different parts of the Edwards campaign," Rosen wrote. An exciting development -- stay tuned. 

The Candidates on the Web

• As we reach the end of the fundraising quarter, we all want to see how much money the candidates have raised.  But you won't find any dollar signs on Barack Obama's home page, only the number of people that have donated.  Jerome Armstrong at MyDD thinks this is a good strategy, and compares it to Howard Dean's numbers in 2003, finding that Obama is about even for this first quarter with Dean's 2nd quarter in 2003.  But what's smart is setting up another metric by which to judge the campaign.  "[Obama's campaign knows] that Clinton is likely to raise a lot more money than Obama will, perhaps $40 Million? So even if Obama gets half that, he has the number of contributors to point toward as a people-powered marker in the process."   

In Case You Missed It...

Candidate Websites and the First Quarter Reporting Deadline
The first quarter FEC reporting deadline is only a couple of days away (March 31). Some sites are making a big push for Internet contributions.

Watch My Lips
Candidates should be doing more video-driven online fundraising.