The Web on the Candidates

• The great quest for the conservative answer to MoveOn continues. Despite boasting of plans to spend $200 million to advocate for conservative issues, the New York Times’ Michael Luo reports that Freedoms Watch has been “plagued by gridlock and infighting, leaving it struggling for direction.” Much of the blame is being laid on Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul that has almost single-handedly funded the operation, and who seems intent on managing the organization from the top down. OpenLeft’s Matt Stoller argues that Freedom’s Watch makes the mistake of thinking that rich donors equals organizational success. While MoveOn might lack heavies like Adelson, “What it does have is a sustained base of 3 million members who take action on a regular basis and an intense culture of listening and promoting progressive power.”

• That story about Barack Obama's "bitter" remark that got the pundits roaring this weekend was broken by citizen journalist Mayhill Fowler at the HuffPost's OffTheBus. An Obama supporter, Fowler didn't nearly anticipate the firestorm her post would cause. Her editor Marc Cooper describes the process of developing and posting the piece, noting that Fowler "employs a highly-personalized, reflective narrative style to her unconventional reporting – an approach that would be, indeed, non-grata, within the official campaign reporting bubble. It violates almost all of the conventions of traditional reporting (though not its ethical code) and that's what makes it all so damn interesting." Have we reached a new phase in journalism when a piece from an "amateur" can incite such a firestorm?

• While the press has been making hay over Bittergate, Obama supporters have launched Bitter Voters for Obama. It's actually a great resource for all things Bitter -- its logo is a lemon, and you can get your news and buy a t-shirt!

• If you’re masochistic enough to want to be alerted every time a Democratic superdelegate commits to candidate, subscribe to this Twitter feed. You also may want to check out this video of paint drying on a wall, or this one of water coming to a boil.

• What the heck is being reflected in Dick Cheney’s sunglasses? An alien? A giant praying mantis? The blogosphere speculates.

  

The Candidates on the Web

• Teresa Valdez Klein has a great post at webcommunityforum about the candidates’ efforts to reach voters on LinkedIn. While she acknowledges that they’ve been talking to voters there, the candidates haven’t been so good at listening to them. “As we online community geeks all know, there’s a big difference between making people feel heard and actually hearing them,” she writes. Liberal comedian/writer Baratunde Thurston expands on this, describing a “Community-Building 2.0” strategy that places politicians squarely in the center of the campaign, rather than at the top. Barack Obama is kinda sorta doing this, and, like others, Thurston sees encouraging signs that he would take the approach to governing as well as campaigning.

In Case You Missed It…

Newly-minted techPresident contributor Michael Tate -- who comes from the tech end of the Tom Tancredo campaign -- schools us on mobile opportunities among the campaign. Beyond text messaging, what’s the future strategy for reaching supporters on the mobile phone? he asks.