 HILLARY CLINTON WEB SITE hillaryclinton.com LOOK FOR The Fact Hub: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but (according to the Clinton campaign, of course) LAUGH AT “Caucusing is Easy,” a video clip that demonstrates just that (while also mocking Hill’s tone-deafness and Bill’s love for cheeseburgers) GRADE B |
There are several Facebook groups devoted to our former first lady and potential future president. One of them is called One Million Strong for Hillary Clinton. Another is called One Million Against Hillary Clinton. Clearly, the conventional wisdom that she’s a divisive candidate is not without merit. But she also clearly wants to be liked. That’s why her site is full of colorful logos imploring mouse clickers to Join Team Hillary, Be a Hillraiser, Build Our Base, and Join/Start a Group. The site has exhaustive policy information, an ever-updated blog, and a copious video archive of TV spots and “HillCasts.” And over at hillaryhub.com, her campaign has effected something of its own Drudge Report, a Spartan clearinghouse for Hill-friendly headlines and breaking news. One questions the need for such a thing, however, when one considers, as New York magazine recently pointed out, that Matt Drudge is “an icon of the right who seems obsessed with making Hillary Clinton our next president.”
 BARACK OBAMA WEB SITE barackobama.com LOOK FOR A breakdown of what the Obama candidacy means for different people: Asian-Americans, African-Americans, First-Americans, LGBT Americans, People of Faith, Environmentalists, Veterans, etc. LAUGH AT The logo for “Generation Obama,” which looks a lot like GQ’s logo GRADE B+ |
Barack Obama’s got a good-looking site: spaciously designed, but with room for a ton of information. There’s a blog, of course. And BarackTV. It also offers mobile capabilities: if you text “Go” to OBAMA (62262), you can receive campaign announcements on your cell phone (bonus: you can interrupt conversations with boring friends to take high-level phone calls from “the Obama campaign”). In addition to MySpace and Facebook, Obama has posted links on his page to blackplanet.com. Still, some of the most notable Internet moments of Obama’s campaign so far have taken place off-site — over at YouTube, created by his supporters. Back in the spring, there was the ad parodying Apple’s famous 1984-style Super Bowl commercial, in which voters are implored to “Vote Different” as an athlete in an Obama T-shirt hurls a hammer into a screen bearing Hillary’s looming, demagogic image. And, of course, there’s “I Got a Crush . . . on Obama,” in which buxom Amber Lee Ettinger lip-syncs a sexy slow jam while lusting after the jug-eared string bean. “It’s just one more example of the fertile imagination of the Internet,” the candidate told reporters when asked about the video. “More stuff like this will be popping up all the time.” And even if he carped that it was ruining his rep (“You do wish people would think about what impact their actions have on kids and families,” he told the AP), you can’t buy publicity like that. It’s a safe bet Barack hearts Obama Girl, too.
Related:
See spot run, The shape of things to come, Wising up, More
- See spot run
The roughly 205,000 campaign ads that have run on American TV so far this primary season have undoubtedly played a major electoral role.
- The shape of things to come
The Democratic front-runners and the Republican establishment will be making critical decisions in the coming weeks that will shape the course of the race.
- Wising up
According to the latest conventional wisdom, Hillary Clinton is threatening to turn the Democratic presidential-nomination race into a rout.
- The X factors
Sure, the polls show Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton ahead in their quests for their respective parties’ nominations.
- Profile polling
Facebook and MySpace represent the easiest and most efficient method of assessing compatibility for a friend, a potential hook-up, or a presidential candidate.
- Rallying cries
Though the press focuses on organization, tactics, and fundraising, campaigns are won by unifying ideas.
- About-face time
Conventional wisdom says that debates help everyone but the front-runner in the polls, because they give the pack exposure and face time next to the leader.
- Who’s with whom — and why?
Now that first-quarter campaign-finance reports have been filed, we can see which presidential candidates scooped up money from which Bay Staters.
- Diagnostic politics
It’s an unfortunate fact of American political life that one’s entire personal life becomes public the minute one runs for office.
- Going the distance
So far the media storyline on Campaign 2008 is how extraordinary this year’s race has been, with the process dominated by upsets and a renewed call for change.
- The long-winded, winding road
Politicians have always been prone to clichés and adages.
- On the national affront
Where does one begin to recap 12 months of such willful self-parody?
- Less

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