The Web on the Candidates

• James Kotecki is calling Hillary Clinton to task for not having posted a new "Hillcast" video in over six weeks. When she first started to post videos, they were a bit stilted and tight, and her call to "let the conversation begin" was contradicted by the sense that we were being talked at, not talked with. As Kotecki notes, her videos were better and more relaxed over time, but then they just stopped. Why has she stopped, he wonders, and when can she "let the conversation continue"?
• To gaffe or not to gaffe? Joe Biden is making waves again with his blunt talk, this time telling a supporter at a fish fry that he would shove the Iraq funding bill down Bush's throat. While the comments below Ben Smith's Politico post about it are critical of Biden and the remark, Biden's own team is proud of it, and is promoting it on Biden's YouTube channel.
• Steve Grove, aka Citizentube, has a good interview up with David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party in the UK, who's been posting several videos a week on his webcameron. Grove asks Cameron about his motivation for posting video so frequently, and his response is refreshingly clear: "Having a presence on the Internet, opening yourself up a bit and letting people have a look at what you do, what your policies are, what your ideas are, how you go about things in politics, that's what it's for." There's a lot that the American candidates can learn from Cameron, and their campaigns should be paying close attention.

The Candidates on the Web

• Ron Paul's web site has entered the 21st century! Although Paul has been a favorite on MySpace, YouTube, and Digg, his campaign web site has been totally stagnant, a fact I seem to bring up about once a week. Now, prominently displayed on his front page, are an embedded YouTube video of Paul's interview in James Kotecki's dorm room and links to his MySpace profile, YouTube channel, blog, and even his Meetup page. I'm glad his campaign sees the value in the supporter-generated media being produced on his behalf; whether because it's cheaper than producing the stuff themselves or because they believe in it, they're embracing it.

In Case You Missed It...

Micah Sifry explains the crash in Barack Obama's MySpace numbers and the battle to control his MySpace page.

Spencer Overton writes that many black blogs are working together to challenge conventional black leadership.