The Candidates on the Web - Ames Special

• On Saturday, Republicans converge on Ames, Iowa for the famed Iowa Straw Poll. How are Republicans using the Web to prepare for this crucial test of old-school organizational ability?

• MittRomney.com is practically Ames Central, which befits his status as the near-certain winner. Go there, and you'll see a splash page with a made-for-the-national-media video of Mitt dissing the candidates who missed the big event (that would be you, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain). The campaign has launched a spiffy new Iowa site, featuring (drumroll please...) the return of mini-Mitt!
• The Washington Post picks up on some of the digital skulduggery around Ames in the run-up to an expected Romney victory. An anonymous blog and video, Iowa Values Not for Sale, is attacking Mitt Romney for paying super-volunteers in key Iowa counties.
• Wired profiles Ron Paul's pre-straw poll efforts, in what should be an interesting experiment in whether one can leverage a passionate online fan base into real offline grassroots. They write, "Republican presidential long shot Ron Paul's passionate online supporters face a critical challenge in Saturday's Iowa straw poll: translating their online energy into success in the offline political process." Like Romney, Ron Paul's website is also putting Ames front and center. On Monday, the campaign dialed back on its earlier contention that it wouldn't pay supporters way to Ames by sending out an e-mail to supporters offering 500 free tickets to vote. But as always with the Paul-ites, the real action is away from the campaign and on the blogs and social media hives. Last week, this Ron Paul blog was the first to post a Romney straw poll direct mail piece, urging Paul supporters to jump on Mitt's busses to vote for their guy on Saturday.
• Meanwhile, Tommy Thompson's campaign sent out the kind of gutsy and honest email we should expect from all the campaigns. It admits that their candidate hasn't quite caught on, and that he'll be forced to pull out of the race unless he places first or second. However, this is probably a graceful bow to reality more than it is a bold attempt to galvanize support. As if to prove the point, his website doesn't seem to be putting forth much of an effort, with a single Ames link leading directly to a staffer's inbox.
• Rounding out some other Ames players, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback allow you to sign up online to attend the straw poll. However, unless I'm missing something that's purely behind the scenes, none of the campaigns seem to have designed Web applications specifically to drive turnout or manage operations at the straw poll, instead pulling out all the stops on phones, mail, and even TV.

The Candidates on the Web - We're Not in Iowa Anymore

• Barack Obama is up with interactive video banner ads in New Hampshire. I found them yesterday while on the Manchester Union Leader site. Built using proprietary Pointroll technology, the ads give users the ability to "rollover to expand" to see a mini-page with a video, Obama bio, and a signup form, linking back to a pledge form on Obama's state site. Here are some screenshots of the ads, before rollover and after. You can be sure that the campaign paid a nice premium for these. We'll know if they were successful if we continue to see them throughout the dog days of August and into the fall.

• Over on the relaunched ImWithFred.com, they're going all meta on us by touting PayPal as an option for contributing to Fred Thompson. As their non-campaign blog explains, "You can complete your donation via PayPal using our normal form, but rather than entering a credit card number, simply click the PayPal option and your donation will take place through the company you’ve come to know for safe transactions online."

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