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%

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.
Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Coming Soon: The Official Elizabeth Kucinich Myspace page.

According to the unofficial Kucinich Myspace, Dennis and Elizabeth will be launching official Myspace pages. The Elizabeth page could add some personality to the campaign.

Edwards blogs about recently acquired supporters

Edwards Gains Support in Iowa; More Than 100 Former Vilsack Supporters Endorse John Edwards For President Read More

Chris Bell Endorses John Edwards For President Read More

North Carolina Democratic Congressional Delegation Endorses John Edwards For President Read More

YouTube Hillary Support Our Troops

Hillary proposes a new GI Bill of Rights to fulfill the promises we've made to our troops and veterans.

HillaryClinton.com tops Candidate Sites for Traffic

"HillaryClinton.com served nearly twice as many unique visitors in January as all three top Republican candidates combined. Clinton's website was the No. 1 presidential campaign site in January. BarackObama.com and JohnEdwards.com ranked second and third, with 574,000 and 464,000 unique visitors, respectively. This according to tracking service Nielsen//NetRatings." from www.rtoonline.com

I personally think it has to do with the Hillary Campaign emails they send out on a weekly basis.
Last 6 Hillary emails I received
Feb 21st Bill Launches One Week One Million
Feb 26th One Week One Million update
Feb 27th One Week One Million update
Feb 28th Hillary HillCast Energy
Mar 6th Launching Women's Campaign HillCast Equal Pay
Mar 8th No More Lost Votes

I never realized how many emails I was getting from the Hillary Campaign. If the emails were from anybody else I would have been annoyed but I always seem to enjoy the Hillary emails. They are informative and always have a call to action, to join a campaign, send in your comments or watch a video.

Other Campaign emails I have received in the same time period (Feb21 - Mar8)
Barack Obama
Feb 21st De-Escalation in Iraq
Mar 1st Update on Recent Travels (includes a video)
Mar 6th Invitation to Donate
Mar 8th Another Invitation to Donate

John Edwards
Mar 2nd Shame on you, Ann Coulter Invite to Donate
Mar 7th They Deserve Better (Walter Reed Medical Center)
Mar 8th Leave no caucus-goer behind Video & Invite to Donate

Campaign emails are a great way to drive traffic to the campaign website and I am sure have played a role in helping increase the monthly traffic stats.

YouTube Rep. Dennis Kucinich's March Forth Greeting

Rep. Dennis Kucinich's greeting to citizens around the country who are claiming March 4th to March Forth in defense of the Constitution.