The Web on the Candidates

• According to liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, John McCain “has more current and former lobbyists working on his campaign staff than any other candidate in the 2008 presidential election.” To illustrate, they’ve produced a graphic showing current and former lobbyists working on McCain’s campaign. Every name is listed in a bubble, and when you rollover the bubbles you see the clients they’ve lobbied for. Whether or not you think this is a problem, I'm sure you'll agree that that sure is a lot of lobbyists.

• You know those sites your mother emails you and all your relatives that promise to add you to national do-not-call lists? Now there’s one, StopPoliticalCalls.org, that promises the same for political robo calls. But maybe I want a personal call from Jay-Z about Barack Obama (not that I’ll get one from Snoop Dogg)!

• Folks over at pro-Hillary Clinton site Hillaryis44 are getting angrier by the minute about this Michigan and Florida delegate business. They’re framing any resistance to a revote in those states as a “Howard Dean aided, Obama theft scam — the 48 state strategy,” so a commenter produced an accompanying flag in protest:

  

  “This is the flag we will carry into the 'Democratic' National Committee Convention hall,” writes “Staff.”

The Candidates on the Web

• Last week the DNC blasted John McCain for advertising on conservative anti-immigration site Black Velvet Bruce Lee, but it turns out Barack Obama and Virginia Senatorial candidate Mark Warner have both advertised on the site as well. What the…? It’s called Google AdWords, people. Welcome to online advertising: using Google’s ad service, you can’t always anticipate where your ad will show up.

• Speaking of advertising with Google, it looks like John McCain has finally gotten in on the action. Michael Learmonth from Silicon Alley Insider reports that McCain has landed his first ad on Adsense, taking clickers to typical sign-up splash page. Baby steps…

• Say it ain’t so! RonPaulGraphs.com, the shining example of third-party usage of campaign data, is shuttering its doors. Now that Ron Paul’s campaign is essentially over, “The utility of RonPaulGraphs.com is now pretty much non-existent,” site proprietor Dan B. writes. We have no doubt that the site will live on in PowerPoint presentations and conference panel discussions across the political landscape. Meanwhile, Dan B. is now turning his coding skills to shining light on the inner workings of his home state's legislature, with a site he's developing called "GovRake."

In Case You Missed It…

Ex-Chris Dodd web guy Matt Browner Hamlin was shocked to discover that former Hillary Clinton “chief strategist” Mark Penn’s book Microtrends has a Facebook application. He was less shocked to discover that Microtrends only has eleven fans on Facebook. It appears that Microtrends has found a micro-audience on Facebook.

Hillary Clinton’s MyPA won’t change the way the campaign spends money in Pennyslvania, writes Patrick Ruffini, but it’s a neat idea nonetheless.

In a different kind of campaign video, a teacher and his students in the Bronx react to Barack Obama’s conversation about race. It’s a touching and poignant piece, but it has nothing to do with PA or NC, barely features the candidate himself, and is 13 minutes long; it’s another example of the the Obama sound blast.