The Web on the Candidates

• Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, the folks behind the documentaries Outfoxed and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, has a new campaign out taking a big swing at Rudy Giuliani. The campaign, called The Real Rudy, consists of four videos attacking Giuliani and a site collecting a load of anti-Hizzoner videos, blog posts, and info. The AP has a story about the first video in the series, criticizing Giuliani's decision to locate the NYC emergency command center at the World Trade Center. The Giuliani campaign followed up on the offensive: "It's unfortunate that a conspiracy theorist so disconnected from reality would launch a politically motivated hit video to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," said Giuliani spokesman Mike McKeon.
• Remember when Ron Paul was excluded from the GOP Bloggers straw poll last week? Despite Ron Paul supporters who have suggested otherwise, blogger Matt Margolis says he has no beef with Paul the candidate. It's Paul's supporters he has issues with. "Ron Paul's exclusion has everything to do with the actions of his supporters, and in one instance, a member of his campaign," Margolis says, referring to alleged actions by Paul supporters and Jesse Benton, Paul's communications director, to game his poll and thus render it useless. He writes that Paul supporters have even "gone so far as to contact my web host by phone ... at his house. This is unacceptable and ridiculously inappropriate conduct... Ron Paul's inclusion in the straw poll has been and will continued to be based solely upon the conduct of his supporters."

The Candidates on the Web

• Michael Bloomberg, who is definitely, completely, utterly not running for president (maybe), continues to obfuscate by launching a MySpace page and a Facebook profile. Wired's Sarah Lai Stirland unearths a particularly (un)revealing quote from his Facebook page: "For too long, the American people have been served up empty promises based on what politicians think we want to hear. It's time for something real. That's our challenge as a nation. That's what this upcoming campaign needs to be about. And these are the issues and challenges that I will continue to address." Yeah, right, that guy is definitely not running for president.
• After Wednesday's Republican debate, Fox News asked viewers to vote, via text message, for who won the debate. Not surprisingly, Ron Paul supporters mobilized and he won the poll, getting 33% of the vote. Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, and Tom Tancredo polled 2% or lower, says Wonkette, and "blamed their low standing on supporters who did not know how to send text messages."
• Barack Obama and Fred Thompson had the two most-trafficked Democratic and Republican presidential sites in July, according to Nielsen//NetRatings (pdf). Obama had 717,000 unique visitors that month, and Thompson's pre-announcement ImWithFred.com site garnered 381,000 uniques. Not bad for a testing-the-waters-and-the-waters-are-warm site.

In Case You Missed It...

Every Friday we're posting a roundup of our favorite videos from the week; don't miss our inaugural post!

Micah Sifry gets some wise advice from Seth Godin, Duncan Watts, and Jonah Peretti, who inject some realism into the notion of viral marketing.

Micah also takes a look at a new Facebook app called GoLoco that offers a new ways to share car rides to events.