The Web on the Candidates

• Now that Rudy Giuliani has every-so-slightly revamped his website, and Fred Thompson's has been redesigned before he's even announced, the Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas wonders, "what should a presidential candidate web site look like?" He finds out that there are few hard answers, and plenty of wariness to go around. The National Journal's Danny Glover thinks all of the presidential sites like like "cookie-cutter designs," and strategist Jonah Seiger simply thinks they look boring. As for me, at least Rudy's site doesn't look broken anymore.
• By unanimously dismissing a recent complaint against Daily Kos, the FEC has essentially placed blogs in the same legal category as big media, reports the Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel. The complaint, filed by conservative blogger John Bambenek, asserted that since the site provides free support and advertising to Democrats, and raises money on their behalf, it should have to register as a political action committee. Not so, says the FEC. "DailyKos is precisely the type of activity that falls within the media exemption," the ruling said. The ruling "makes clear that costs incurred in publishing or broadcasting news or commentary are not contributions or expenditures, unless the media outlet is owned by a political party or candidate," writes Vogel.
• Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films has released yet another video slamming Rudy Giuliani, this time featured at the The REAL Rudy.org. After cataloging Rudy's "mistakes" (marrying his second cousin, dressing in drag, Bernie Kerik, false claims about visits to Ground Zero), it asks you to vote for Rudy's biggest mistake on the site. To vote, you have to provide your email address, which turns the game into a list-building exercise. The site also conveniently hosts a kind of "best-of" collection of anti-Giuliani videos, including Rudy's flip-flop on immigration and that guy driving in a minivan saying weird "pro"-Giuliani things.

The Candidates on the Web

• A couple of days after Rudy launched his Facebook profile, Hizzoner has 450 supporters (friends, for politicians on Facebook). While that number doesn't compare to the numbers for Barack Obama, Ron Paul, or even uber-geek Robert Scoble (140,442, 22,777, and 4,998, respectively), it ain't terrible for having had a profile for all of two or three days. His team has made good use of various Facebook apps like slide shows, blip.tv show creator, and Cities I've Visited, which, until clicked through, provides a rather meaningless blob of points around the U.S. Staffer Dan Meyers -- who introduces himself as "your host of Running with Rudy" -- welcomes guests and describes the campaign's web operation and its upcoming national house party night, which will feature a live webcast with Rudy. The whole approach gives a much more human, connected feel to Rudy's web operation and his campaign in general. See, this tech stuff is cool, right?

In Case You Missed It...

Micah Sifry thinks Mitt Romney's create-your-own-ad contest is a smart way to engage voters and erase the public memory about his reluctance to join in a YouTube debate. But how will his campaign respond to the negative ads that are popping up on his site?

Micah also links to Jose Vargas' profile of Mike Rogers, the blogger who's been outing gay politicians across Washington. Ethics aside, Rogers is another example of an unstoppable blogger armed with the facts.