The Web on the Candidates

• In a twist on Joe Trippi's "flood the zone" theory, Patrick Ruffini looks at the Clinton campaign's response to Bill O'Reilly's Yearly Kos attack and decides that, "when it comes to user-generated content on campaign sites, the best defense is a good offense. If you make a robust embrace of the social Web, the press and outside observers will eventually come to discount the bad stuff as a byproduct of the sheer volume of content you've made available." There's something the be said for this; despite his Joe Anthony moment, Barack Obama raised $10.3 million online last quarter...
• Oh boy: MSNBC's Hardball wants a cut of the action from this online video thing. The show announced a new "campaign ad challenge," asking viewers to create their own "viral" campaign videos. "If you've got an idea for the next great viral video ad, pick up your camera! Hardball's campaign ad challenge is looking the most creative entries about your favorite presidential candidate or the candidate you like the least. Our panel of all-stars will name the winner in August." Um, okay, but since when does "viral" mean having your video chosen by a "panel of all-stars"? Viral doesn't mean "cool" or "jumping on a bandwagon" either. This new contest proves that news networks are still oblivious to the existence of something call a "community" online -- you know, the non-all-star folks who actually make something go viral and give it cultural meaning.
• How revolutionary and democratic will Monday's YouTube/CNN debate be? To know, we'll have to actually watch the thing, but in the meantime there's always punditry and the art of guessing. Mary Anne Ostrom at the Mercury News talked to Peter Leyden at the New Politics Institute, who said that the debate "is more symbolic of the potential than actual performance." CNN's political director Sam Feist says that "if [the candidates] give the same answers as they would have to Wolf Blitzer or Brian Williams, it may be less revolutionary than we thought." And James Kotecki thinks that the new format will itself spice up the night. "Part of the zaniness is what makes YouTube endearing. It may make the debate a lot more interesting and a less formal affair."
• The Wall Street Journal's Kevin J. Delany and Amy Schatz report about Google's "quiet march through the
  conference rooms of Washington to explain how its products can help politicians get elected." Although it isn't charging for much of its offerings, Google is banking on increased influence in Washington by getting its products embedded in political campaigns. [Unfortunately, the full article is only available to subscribers.]

In Case You Missed It...

In two successive posts, Micah Sifry examines a new study from Compete.com that details the candidates' site traffic by state, and draws some interesting conclusions.

In attacking Yearly Kos and JetBlue for a handful of comments out of thousands on Dail Kos, Bill O'Reilly has reached a new, low level of journalistic shoddiness.