The Web on the Candidates

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) launches his presidential bid this morning and according to Beth Fouhy of the Associated Press, the longtime senator will announce his candidacy via online video to supporters.

While in Iowa this weekend, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was caught on microphone singing the national anthem out of tune, reports the New York Times' Patrick Healy. The new media that sparked a "conversation" about her announcement message quickly turned on her as the video made it to YouTube within hours.

The Internet age allows for instant access to up-to-the-minute information but one drawback is accuracy is sometimes sacrificed for the scoop. The website Insight, an online magazine owned by the Washington Times, reported that Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) attended a madrassa as a child in Indonesia and the report came from the Clinton camp. It was quickly debunked, both the claim and any connection to Clinton, but the lesson remains.

Arianna Huffington, the former Republican-turned-Democratic-online guru, wants to organize the first ever online debate for the 2008 presidential election. Can you imagine that? "A green light will come on to signal the candidate has 30 characters left. A yellow light signals 15 characters. A red light means five characters left in the text box."

MyDD's Chris Bowers combs through the data from 2004 and heading into the 2008 primary season to "call B.S." on the blogosphere in writing off Clinton as at her peak in the nationwide polls.

The Candidates on the Web

After months of telling nationwide audiences that he is running for president in 2008 at every opportunity, Biden (D-DE) will make it official with the FEC today. But his campaign website is already up and running. Complete with video clips of his various television appearances, Biden also features outreach efforts to the usual suspects online (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr), a fully functioning Biden Blog, with a relaxed Joe Biden sporting a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wardrobe in the banner.

Clinton (D-NY) visited Iowa this weekend and if you couldn't make it to the Hawkeye State, her campaign website has the highlights.

The absorption of top bloggers to presidential campaigns continued as Senator John Edwards (D-NC) hired a "new blogmaster" -- Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon fame. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) locked up Patrick Hynes, Clinton has Peter Daou, Edwards has Mathew Gross and now Marcotte, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) nabbed Patrick Ruffini, and former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) has received plenty of praise for his blogger outreach efforts, though he lacks a blog himself.

While Democratic candidates experiment with music playlists, online video and social networking sites, Obama's (D-IL) campaign site remains virtually unchanged since he launched his presidential exploratory committee.

Giuliani (R-NY) made some minor adjustments to his campaign home-- an easier e-mail sign-up and "Rudy News," a round-up of favorable articles on the former mayor.

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) calls himself the "most conservative candidate"
and aligns Iraq with the War on Terror on the main page with an Iraqi map on the main page that appears to show the pre-invasion no-fly zones.