techPresident - Daily Digest, 2/19/07 - Comments

Candidate ties

Joshua Levy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:21:24 -0500

Nancy, you're right -- we should definitely be noting when a blogger has ties to a candidate. Patrick Ruffini will henceforth be prefixed with "Giuliani consultant," or something to that effect.

Yes, definitely

Micah L. Sifry — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:21:02 -0500

Nancy--

Good catch. I don't know if the reporter who interviewed Ruffini knew that, but we can certainly add the relevant info.

Micah

Ties

Nancy Scola — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:27:04 -0500

I'm wondering if it's worth noting when someone like Patrick Ruffini comments on candidates that he works for one himself. (In Patrick's case, Rudy Guliani.) I don't have a firm opinion. It just struck me that it might be useful context to have when considering what he has to say.

Daily Digest, 2/19/07

Joshua Levy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:05:36 -0500

The Web on the Candidates

"If the liberal blogs want to understand why so few people outside their narrow echo chamber take them seriously, and what it will take to gain the broader credibility they crave, they should look no further than their handling of the recent flap over John Edwards’ foul-mouthed blogger hires," says Dan Gerstein in the Politico.

Patrick Ruffini calls John Edwards' site a "mess," in part because, as Todd Ziegler notes, there are icons for and links to 24 social news/social networking sites. "I get it. The Edwards campaign is really into the whole Web 2.0 thing. Message delivered. I understand the power of these networks. I do. But 24 accounts? This just strikes me as sort of ridiculous," Ziegler says. Ruffini says there's also too much text on the home page: "A homepage should be made for scanning, so a big graphic with your message of the day, with icons and 5-6 word descriptions of your key features is what works best."