The Web on the Candidates

• It's good to be back! The, er, south Pacific (or was that the north Atlantic?) was splendid.
• The Ames Straw Poll results are in, and Mitt Romney has won handily, with 31% of the vote.  The big story, though, is Mike Huckabee's surprising second-place finish, which came despite a relative lack of money and resources. Meanwhile, Sam Brownback finished a disappointing third, just a couple of points ahead of Tom "Let's bomb their holy sites" Tancredo, and six points ahead of Ron Paul, who finished fifth, proving that his fanatical online support has yet to move offline.
• Rudy Giuliani and John McCain didn't participate, but there have apparently been rumors that their campaigns were strategically helping out other candidates, namely Brownback and Huckabee. Marc Ambinder says the rumors -- specifically one about McCain's staff helping out Brownback's campaign to help "drive down Mitt Romney's margin of victory" -- are untrue.  "Although free lance operators may have arrived at the same strategic insight... There's no official help flowing from either McCain's campaign or Giuliani's campaign."  Any help, freelance or otherwise, may have helped Huckabee, but not Brownback, given his results, which Patrick Ruffini thinks may be due to an unusually negative campaign.
• No website expressed more joy over Huckabee's surprise second-place finish than Mike Huckabee President 2008.  Blog PI William Beutler notes that not only is the blog the "first unofficial Huckabee for President blog," as the site puts it, but he's "pretty sure Mike Huckabee President 2008 was the first unofficial 2008 blog for any candidate, period — launched February 14, 2005."  Not bad.
• Meanwhile, Tommy Thompson has dropped out after finishing sixth at Ames.   His virtually static website has yet to mention the news; the latest press release proclaims "Thompson Ready to Answer Questions from Snowman or Every Man in YouTube Debate."  What about the overman?  
• The Republican CNN/YouTube debate is back on, reports Jose Antonio Vargas, and the new date is November 28th.  Every Republican candidate has committed... except that old stick in the mud, Mitt Romney.  Come on Mitt!  You won the Ames straw poll! You're on top!  You've posted more videos on YouTube than any other candidate!  What are you afraid of?  Save the debate!
• Also, Mitt, Pop + Politics links to two great videos submitted for the Republican debate, both from African American men asking, essentially, why Republicans don't reach out more to the black community.  Here's your chance to explain yourself to them!
• Finally, we, the audience/participants, will now get a chance to reuse and remix ABC and NBC's debate footage as we please.   The two networks have joined CNN in "freeing up the  debates," as Jeff Jarvis puts it, so that there are no licensing restrictions when using the footage. 

The Candidates on the Web

• Cracked.com, which is not usually noted for it's searing political punditry, takes a stab at reviewing the candidates' web sites, and the results are hysterical.  Each web site is reviewed according to "Overall Impression," "Awkward Attempt at Hipness," and "Weirdest Moment."  I'd love to quote my favorite bit, but it's all so damn funny it's impossible.  I'll give you a taste.  John McCain's awkward attempt at hipness: "The McCainSpace electronical networking platform for youths that do the Interweb."  Overall impression of Joe Biden's site: " It’s tough to get a feel for the site with Joe Biden’s floating head staring at you the whole time."  John Edwards: "Yawn, John Edwards. Yawn."