Joshua Levy 01/21/2008 - 1:00pm

Jay Rosen explains why campaign coverage sucks, but does it nicely; Zack Exley gets in-depth about the Clinton campaign's field operation; political journalists are Twittering; allegations of voter suppression from the Clinton campaign in Nevada are gaining traction; expat Democrats can now vote in the primaries online; Micah Sifry schools Brian Lehrer on online political video; Duncan Hunter drops out; and Fred Thompson is still in it for now, though is obits are being written anyway.

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the editors 12/06/2007 - 11:15amWe studied the candidates' websites and statements, hunting for signs that they understand the importance of the internet and new technology for America's future. The Republican field, with the exceptions of Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, barely escaped flunking. 10 comments | Read more ...

David All 11/30/2007 - 6:57pm

After the YouTube-CNN Debate, I spent some time in the "Spin Room" talking with folks about their thoughts on the Republican debate. (I did the same thing at the Democratic YouTube debate earlier this year.)

Below, find short vlogs from Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter, Patrick Ruffini, Robert Bluey, Mary Katharine Ham, James Kotecki, Jose Antonio Vargas, Meghan McCain, Charlie Smith, and, wait for it... Chuck Norris.

Ready.
Set.
Go.

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Joshua Levy 10/15/2007 - 1:40pm

You’ve been asking for them, and now you’ve got them: Meetup charts!

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Fred Stutzman 04/19/2007 - 6:39pm

At techPresident, we've previously explored how candidate sites are faring in search engine rankings. The placement of search engine results proves to be very important, as research shows that individuals are more likely to pay attention to (and ultimately click through) the top results in a search engine. As it happens, the placement of search results (known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization) is also a big industry. TP sat down with Neil Patel, the founder of ACS, a firm specializing in SEO and social media marketing. We asked Neil some basic questions about SEO, and why it matters to presidential candidates.

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Joshua Levy 04/17/2007 - 10:47am

The Web on the Candidates

Colin Delany at e.politics links to a post from the French blog Netpolitique responding to PoliticsOnline's assertion that Barack Obamacould be the JFK of the web. Instead, the French writer thinks that the U.S. is far behind the French: "Not to sound haughty, but French presidential candidates have been there and done that, and more, for over two years. They are now headed into the final stretch of a bruising political campaign which has ignited the French blogosphere for months now..." But Delany thinks his fellow Americans have been doing a comparable job: "American candidates have been using video-sharing and social networking applications extensively for months now, and if the French candidates are doing it more comprehensively, they’re also much closer to election day (as in, weeks instead of the nearly-a-year we’ll be waiting for the first primaries). Remember, the American candidates just unveiled their initial sites a few weeks ago. And, as [s]he acknowledges, online organizing isn’t winning elections yet — mainstream media still rule (as does local organizing, something that he doesn’t touch on at all)."

The New York Times has produced a great Flash feature that lays campaign contributions (unfortunately, only those over $200) over a map of the United States, divided by candidate. There are no real revelations here, but it's a great way to visualize how much money the candidates received, and where it came from.

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Joshua Levy 04/09/2007 - 10:30am

The Web on the Candidates
Rudy Giuliani advisor Patrick Ruffini looks at theories that the Democrats own the internet and decides it isn’t true. “The basic gist of the argument is that because Democrats embrace open systems online (blog comments, user generated content), they’re more successful and raise more money. This totally gets it backwards, I think.”  Ruffini thinks that the “top-down” style of generating massive email lists is still the way candidates are raising large amounts of money.  Supporters are still “far more likely to interface with the campaign from a top-down email sent from headquarters than they are by having a peer-to-peer dialogue with the campaign,” he writes.  In this regard, the Repubicans are competing with the Democrats.  “The lesson is that Web traffic (and donations) follows media coverage and the political environment, and Republicans more than held their own in a difficult year.”  Matt Stoller has a different explanation: “The Democratic Party is ‘ahead’ not in the sense that its masters have learned the new tools, but because the party is becoming much more open and aligned around a left-wing ideology that is ascendant in America,” and the Republicans have yet to catch up to this shift.

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David All 03/27/2007 - 8:03pm

Duncan Hunter's campaign team has come to a few realizations: He's not the front-runner. He can't command media attention like some of the other nominees. And his biggest strength is his unique blend of being both a populist and a conservative.

Roll up those strings in to a ball of yarn in the modern world and you've got Duncan Hunter's "broadband bypass strategy."

Let's dig in...

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Michael Turk 02/16/2007 - 4:48pm

Duncan Hunter has scored some big news this week with the recruitment of John Hawkins (of RightWingNews) as a consultant on blog and online strategy, and rolled out his new website. Unfortunately, all of that was lost on me the moment I saw his site.

Is it just me or do most of the Presidential sites this year all look alike? McCain's site breaks from the mold, but everything else seems to follow the same model - large graphic to the left, action center to the right, horizontal navigation, banner featuring the candidate name and an obligatory e-mail sign-up.

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Joshua Levy 02/16/2007 - 12:40pm

The Web on the Candidates

• AbsentCongress.org is keeping tabs on the voting records of 2008 presidential candidates in the Senate. According to the site, Sam Brownback has missed more than half of his Senate roll call votes. Compare that to Hillary Clinton and John McCain, who have been present for 94.87% of their votes.
• It's tapioca time: Jeff Jarvis laments the threat to conversation signaled by the Edwards blogger resignations: "Now every blogger hired by every campaign — in any position — will have their writing scanned for anything that could offend anyone. Tapioca time."
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