Daily Digest: The Mile-High Club
By Nancy Scola, 08/28/2008 - 2:55pm

The Web on the Candidates

  • A Look Back: The 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver marks the 14th Dem convo for Nation Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky, and the magazine's Ari Berman sat down with Navasky in downtown Denver's terrific Tattered Cover bookstore (thanks for the free wifi!) to reflect back on conventions past and reflect on the significance of Obama's acceptance of the Democratic nomination this evening. One thing is new for Victor this convention: he's blogging it. #

  • On the Nature of a Convention: Making a sense of a political convention when you're neck deep in it can be a case of knowing an elephant by feeling it blindfolded, but OpenLeft's Matt Stoller says that the fact that he's hearing the most interesting stuff coming out of the mouth of T. Boone Pickens is perhaps a sign that the Democratic Convention is a bit too "low key." #

  • Blogging from the Outside: In my experience, political conventions are all about access. Conversation revolves around how to get into the main hall, peripheral events, and late night parties. It can sometimes feel like knocking on the doors of a club you don't know the password to. (To wit, check out this NSFW Craigslist request for a ticket to Invesco Field tonight.) But Living Liberally comedian Lee Camp isn't letting it get to him. He's "Liveblogging Outside the DNC (Because They Won't Let Me In)." Seriously, though, Lee's post is a look at one of the protests happening here in the streets that you might not get elsewhere. #

The Candidates on the Web

  • Obama's Late Registration: Here's an interesting news nugget from one of the bloggers on the scene here in Denver. Feet in 2 World's blogger Aswini Anburajan spoke with the Obama campaign's Latino outreach director Temo Figueroa, who reported that in his acceptance speech at Invesco Field today Obama will launch a huge voter registration drive before the November election. Obama, according to Anburajan's account, will be pouring a great deal of campaign cash into what promises to be the largest ever registration drive by a presidential candidate. #

  • McCainSpace? More Like "WhySpace": In non-DNC news, the McCain campaign has re-launched McCainSpace, its internal social networks. The Bivings Report's Todd Zeigler is no fan, saying that the new effort is "too little too late." Calling it "nebulous," Todd asks why they campaign would bother launching a social network this close to election day. #

  • Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About: On the eve of John McCain's announcement of his vice presidential pick, here's a fun Twitter tool tracking the mentions of the possible Republican VP candidates. Now, Mitt Romney and Joe Lieberman have the most mentions of late, by far, but bear in mind that those mentions might be of the "please, please, please don't let it be..." variety. Also, our Technorati charts show Romney with the most buzz, but we haven't included Lieberman in the mix. #

TechCongress and Beyond

  • Pelosi Diggs It: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi participated in the first ever Digg Dialogg yesterday, answering community-rated questions live on CNN. Pelosi answered the nine top-rated questions from the more than 1,400 submitted, and while CNN.com reports that the impeachment of President George Bush was one of the most discussed topics for the Speaker on Digg, none of the related questions broke into top-rated ones -- and so it went unasked. #

In Case You Missed It...

Micah Sifry asks why the Obama campaign is missing the opportunity to drive people to its website during a week when all eyes are on their candidate. Micah: "Considering that the Democratic convention is drawing a healthy nightly TV audience of perhaps 25 million prime-time viewers, you've got to count this as more than just a minor slip by Team Obama."

Looking at how the DNC is feting bloggers here at Democratic National Convention compared to how they were treated in Boston '04, I ask what this week's convention tells us about how bloggers slot into the Democratic universe circa 2008.

We humbly note that techPresident was just chosen by PC Magazine as the eighth best political website on the Internets today. We're honored.



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