Hillary Clinton, Democrats lead Republicans in Web race to the White House

Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 special series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics”

Hillary Clinton began her online presidential “User Generated Politics” presidential campaign 2008 “conversation” early and it is paying off. “Hillary for President” is leading in national opinion polls and on the Web.

“If the next Democratic primary for president were being held today, for which candidate would you vote,” NBC News/Wall Street Journal polled 1007 adults nationwide the first week of March 2007:

Hillary Clinton: 40%
Barack Obama: 28%
John Edwards: 15%

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Election fight enters virtual world

THE SCRAMBLE for votes in Mayo’s five-seat constituency reached the new media last week with both Fianna Fail’s Frank Chambers and Fine Gael’s John O’Mahony posting messages on the video-sharing website YouTube.

YouTube, although only two years old, has rapidly become the number one destination for television on the Internet. It’s estimated that viewers watch 100 million videos on the site every day and anybody can supply material to appear on the site.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama launched their US presidential campaigns on YouTube so Frank Chambers decided that he could do the same. Chambers is the oldest candidate in the constituency. He believes that posting a clip on YouTube will help him keep in touch with the youth of Co Mayo and from his kitchen in Newport, he makes his message.

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Politicians are casting the Net to catch votes

Rusty McGuire joined the race for Hanover County commonwealth's attorney and then logged on to his computer.

By the time he signed off at the end of that weekend, the 36-year-old prosecutor, who specializes in computer crimes, had turned out a Web site and several networking site profiles.

He now lists more MySpace friends -- 1,330 as of yesterday -- than Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, 1,082.

Online campaigning has surged on the national level in recent years and is poised to be a major force in the 2007 local and state elections. In Virginia, candidates are uploading pictures and scanning networking sites as bloggers field requests from hopefuls wanting a higher profile online.

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With this election, web's got the votes

It’s only March 2007. You might think it's March 2008 by the pace of the presidential race, and as much as the candidates dominate the TV news shows, the real evidence is on the internet.

Indeed, while the web has played some role in politics for a decade, this looks to be the election where much of the bedrock campaigning will take place online.

“From my perspective one thing that was very interesting is how early on and dedicated the candidates have become to the internet,” says Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of media analytics at Nielsen//NetRatings.

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Senator Dodd Prepares for Daily Show

Duncan Hunter on China

Joe Biden on Late Edition

Romney on Judges, Iraq & Republicans

The Case for Romney

Fmr. NV Gov. Kenny Guinn Backs Mitt Romney

Recent Chris Dodd Photos

Recent Edwards Photos

Donations Pooled Online Are Getting Candidates' Attention

In a political fundraising world traditionally dominated by lobbyists and wealthy business executives, small-dollar donor Hrishi Karthikeyan found a way to make his own splash, right from his desk.

With tools offered free on Barack Obama's Internet site, Karthikeyan, 28, created his own "South Asians for Obama" Web portal to gather money from friends who were inspired to support his favorite candidate. Within days, he was able to forward to Obama's presidential campaign $1,600 -- more than he ever planned to give on his own -- in bundled contributions from those who saw the targeted site.
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Candidates not yet savvy to youth vote: survey

Mar 9, 2007 — BOSTON (Reuters) - Politicians failed to tap the youth vote even after record turnout in the 2004 U.S. presidential election and will need the Internet to draw this block, a Harvard University survey showed on Friday.

Young Americans were largely ignored by political campaigns during the 2006 congressional election, but their ballots helped decide two tight U.S. Senate races for Democrats, said John Della Volpe, polling director at Harvard's Institute of Politics.

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Put a Hippie in the White House

Banners from the Kucinich Website

RECLAIM AMERICA FROM THE WEAPON MAKERS:

RECLAIM AMERICA FROM BIG BUSINESS:

NO MORE WAR:

PRESIDENT:

MAN OF PEACE:

I can't help but feel that his message is different, confused, I might say out of touch but I don't want to speak for everyone. For example:
"RECLAIM AMERICA FROM THE WEAPON MAKERS" This just isn't a phrase that pops into my head when I think of our current administration. I have heard people call our the administration "war mongols" and "terrorists" but never "weapon makers". They might wan't to rethink some of those banners.