The Web on the Candidates

• We all love WikiScanner, the tool that makes it easy to search for Wikipedia edits by individual or institution, and it's fun to dig up dirt with it. In fact, it isn't that hard to find questionable edits made by staffers with an agenda, or with too much time on their hands. But when Mike McIntire of the New York Times' Caucus blog went a-lookin', he found out that... someone from Barack Obama's staff mistakenly listed Iowa's date of statehood as 1846, not 1848. Yes, it's terrible, isn't it? How could they? The commenters aren't amused; all 86 comments are variations on the theme, "who cares?"
• Still unconvinced that Fred Thompson is only "testing the waters"? Neither is Lane Hudson, a liberal blogger and former Democratic staffer who posted the emails responsible for Mark Foley's resignation. Now he's filed an FEC complaint against Thompson, claiming that Thompson "is breaking the law and it's time somebody did something about it." Hudson argues that Thompson has been running a full-fledged presidential campaign, and his actions belie his coy statements that imply otherwise. Check out his un-campaign site; if that's not a candidate site I don't know what is. (There's more from Colin Delany)

The Candidates on the Web

• Two weeks ago we reported that, according the Hitwise 2008 Data Center, Ron Paul was "demolishing" the rest of the Republican field online, capturing 44.2% of visits to Republican candidates' websites. Mitt Romney was second with 16.1%, and Rudy Giuliani third with 11.8%. Last week, Paul was still first, but Romney had moved significantly up, with a 23.41% market share. The bigger surprise was Mike Huckabee who, probably owing to his second-place finish in the Ames, IA straw poll, was in third with 15.98% of the share, pushing Giuliani to fourth place behind John McCain.

• Man-on-the-street meets citizen journalism meets 21st-century campaigning: Judy Feder, who's running for Congress in Virginia, has created a new kind of campaign video. Instead of promoting herself by talking at viewers, she asks regular people what they think about the war in Iraq (she's a Democrat, so they uniformly think we should leave Iraq).

  It would be nice to see some of the presidential candidates take a cue and actually listen to folks on the street. (Hat tip, Mike Lux)

In Case You Missed It...

James Kotecki has made the leap from dorm-room video blogger to professional journalist, reports David All.