The Web on the Candidates

• "If the liberal blogs want to understand why so few people outside their narrow echo chamber take them seriously, and what it will take to gain the broader credibility they crave, they should look no further than their handling of the recent flap over John Edwards’ foul-mouthed blogger hires," says Dan Gerstein in the Politico.
• Patrick Ruffini calls John Edwards' site a "mess," in part because, as Todd Ziegler notes, there are icons for and links to 24 social news/social networking sites. "I get it. The Edwards campaign is really into the whole Web 2.0 thing. Message delivered. I understand the power of these networks. I do. But 24 accounts? This just strikes me as sort of ridiculous," Ziegler says. Ruffini says there's also too much text on the home page: "A homepage should be made for scanning, so a big graphic with your message of the day, with icons and 5-6 word descriptions of your key features is what works best."
• Videoblogger James Kotecki has joined the Blog the Campaign in 08 team, and will be adding is comments, via video, about "how YouTube is changing the nature of political campaigns." His first post is about how Unity '08 is using YouTube despite it's lack of, um, a candidate.
• The Nation reports that Barack Obama is making serious headway among techno-savvy youth, and much of the work is being done by the supporters, not the campaign. Quickly growing Facebook groups and enthusiasm among younger voters points to the "genuine potential for something like a Howard Dean 2.0 movement that could be anchored by an even younger grassroots base empowered with newer, sharper online tools," writes Sam Graham-Felsen.
• Matt Stoller lists the "four basic duties of a campaign blogger or netroots specialist": smear patrol, content management, online surrogate management, and blogger outreach.

The Candidates on the Web

• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee unveiled a new web site for his presidential exploratory committee over the weekend, which is a departure from the earlier site in that it isn't terrible. It includes a video in which, apparently in reference to Michelle Malkin, he explains why bloggers are important: "when bloggers go from folks that are out there on the periphery to people that are now the targets of international hacking and I guess you'd say terrorism, you know that they've certainly become a major part of the communication infrastructure of the country." Wha?
• Ron Paul launched a new exploratory web site that, while a step up from his previous site, is still seriously lacking. Aside from the hokey pictures on the front page (Paul sitting on a tractor; an older woman crying on Paul's shoulder), site features a testimonials page, a "join us" page with nothing but a form to input your info, a downloadable form to send in contributions (no online contributions!) and a "spread the word" form that sends emails to one friend at a time with the stock message, "Congressman Ron Paul, a man who truly believes in freedom, is seriously considering running for the Republican nomination for president. I'm working to gather support so Congressman Paul will become a candidate." No link to the site. He has a long way to go...
• Mitt Romney is getting a lot of attention for yesterday's appearance on ABC's "This Week," and his site promotes the campaign's favorite bits from the show. They offer a press release featuring transcripts of Romney's interview with George Stephanopoulos and with links to the video -- but no embedded video, even though Google Video makes it easy to embed.

Hillary's blog countdown

• It's a lunar month: Twenty-eight days, no blog from Hillary.