Which 08' candidate is most web savvy?

[PresidentObama]

March 5, 2007 issue - In the early race for 2008, most national polls have Hillary Clinton thumping Democratic rival Barack Obama by double digits. But the junior senator from Illinois can take comfort in at least one tally: MySpace, apparently, is Obama country. About 48,000 members of the wildly popular social-networking site have added Obama to their online profiles as a "friend," while only 25,000 have "friended" Clinton. It may seem a trivial statistic. But to the political junkies who run techPresident.com, a new "group blog" that obsessively follows how the presidential campaign is playing on the Internet, no Web trend is too small to track.

Micah Sifry, the site's cofounder and editor, says he's trying to make sense of "how candidates are using the Web and how the Web is using them." A lot has changed since the 2004 campaign, when Howard Dean helped pioneer a new kind of Net politicking, creating an online community of supporters that ultimately brought in $27 million and redefined campaign fund-raising. Now all candidates— drawn by the Web's potential to help get their message out, yet leery of its ability to magnify the smallest mistake—are Web savvy. (Or at least they hire people who are.) Sifry is trying to make sense of it: "We want to be an interpreter, to help people understand how the Internet is changing politics on a daily basis."

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And prominently displayed on the homepage is that up-to-the-minute scorecard of nearly all of the presidential candidates' MySpace friends. The Republican hopeful with the most pals—2,757, as of last Friday—is Ron Paul, a GOP Texas congressman who's running for president. Sifry says the MySpace numbers mean ... something, though it's unclear if a candidate's online friends will cast real-world votes. "It is a measure of enthusiasm," he says. "It's the world live Web now, and it reflects the conversations people are having around the digital water cooler." Such as: who, exactly, is this Ron Paul guy?

Like the article says, it's unclear if a candidate's online friends will cast real-world votes BUT it's important that the candidates on both sides (ESPECIALLY ours) use the internet effectively. Remember Dean in 2004? Of course you do!! He effectively used the internet and sites like meetup to get people involved and energized. Obama and Clinton seem to be effectively using MySpace which targets young-to-middle aged voters, and I must say both have great websites. Clinton's is very neat, professional, and showcases the well oiled Clinton machine. And Obama's is very innovative in that you build your own page, including adding friends and creating groups like you would on MySpace. Edwards also has a great MySpace, and his website has a page dedicated to many social networking sites he uses. And as far as his getting his name out there through social networking sites, Edwards is leading the way!

As the MSNBC article says in the sub-header "Which presidential candidate has the best Web site? You can surf them all, or just go to techPresident.com"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17313109/site/newsweek/