techPresident - google - Comments

The "debates" so far...

LonewackoDotCom — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:42:38 -0400

The "debates" so far haven't featured any real questions, at least about policy matters. They've just been puffballs which generate a stock speech. My discussion of the announcement is here.

The only way to select good user-generated questions is described here. That's much different from the 10questions format, because only bloggers (say, someone who's been blogging for six months) and others with reputation to protect would do the voting. And, their votes would be public, meaning that they'd be putting their reputations on the line if they voted down tough videos or voted up weak videos.

MySpace/MTV

Michael Connery — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:36:24 -0400

Townhall style format? They'll be super smart if they take their cues from the MTV/MySpace Candidate Dialogues. Those events have thus far been the high point of voter-participation in a candidate forum.

I've blogged about them a number of times here on Tech President.

Bob Barr's Open Data Gambit

wyatthull — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:53:38 -0400

Former Congressman Bob Barr's recent entry into the Libertarian nomination race and live donation feed (http://www.barr08.com/) provide Dan B. and others with a shiny new data set to graph, analyze, and discuss. The transparency revolution marches onward! It should be fascinating to track his exploratory committee's donor engagement from Day 1, with the LP Convention in Denver less than two months away.

Obama Spike...

JMalone TN — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:58:00 -0500

... on YouTube is an illusion. Since the day before Iowa, and since then, YouTube has been playing with the view counts of certain candidates. Didn't matter how many times you watched a video all the way to the end the count didn't change for Ron Paul views. Want proof. Here you go.

This video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiFsxp5qOpM

For two days this video stayed at 133,302
views although everyone in the comments kept
asking why the view count wasn't changing.
It had 6071 comments and 18 honors. Was ranked
#1 in many of YouTubes catagories including
#1 most viewed for the day. The poster took it
down and reposted it so that the view counter
would reflect new views. It then stayed at 16
although it had 108 comments. This is how Obama
is taking over YouTube. Not more traffic, just
holding back the counts for the real YouTube King
- Dr Ron Paul

The Ron Paul Blimp

littlebier8 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:08:07 -0500

Yeah, I saw it coming guys.

Is Randy Brinson blowing smoke?

tlsmith — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:35:23 -0500

That number seems awfuly high. I also think it is high since most people who have access to e-mail have multiple addresses, such as one for work, one for home, and one as a "spam catcher".

We're working on it

Joshua Levy — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:23:00 -0500

We're working on fixing the front-page chart -- we'll have it fixed soon.

this has been bugging me...

larethdf — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:18:55 -0500

Your Youtube chart on the front page hasn't been updated in over a month now, yet the Youtube chart page itself seems OK. Can you guys fix this so we don't have to view the full chart to get current numbers?

Noted

Joshua Levy — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:59:10 -0400

Danny - thanks for the correction.

Advisory role at Heritage's media center

AirCongress — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:43:46 -0400

Hi Josh,

I just wanted to clarify for your readers (as my original post says) that I'm an adviser to Heritage's Center for Media and Public Policy, not to the Heritage Foundation. The center's core mission has been to offer nonpartisan training in computer-assisted research and reporting.

Under Rob Bluey, the center also has been working to help journalists and bloggers understand each other better. And Rob has been a leader in the Open House Project's bid to help bloggers and others who work in online media get credentials to cover Congress, an issue that is important to me.

My advisory role is limited to such efforts that are focused on the intersection of old and new media, a topic that I discuss regularly at Beltway Blogroll.

Danny

Mortgages On the Agenda

Alan Rosenblatt — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:41:34 -0400

I noticed that George Stephanopolis asked all the candidates to comment on the mortgage crisis this morning. And now Hillary Clinton is spotlighting it. All great. I am glad to learn more about their positions.

I still want an easy search function on these websites. I know they consciously choose not to have it. But, as a voter in the world's premier democracy, I feel I deserve it.

Alan Rosenblatt
AKA DrDigiPol (drdigipol.com)

An improvement, but not much

cfinnie — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:36:42 -0400

If anybody but Kucinich has in-depth issues information, that's an improvement. If any sites have a search function, that is too.

A couple of months ago, my DFA group identified 7 issues we were interested in. Each of us volunteered to check Democratic candidate sites for information on one issue. Mine was civil rights and the protection thereof. I do remember quite vividly how hard it was to find any substantive information on any of the candidate sites on that particular issue--with the single exception of Kucinich.

Clinton had no issues page at all until months later. Other campaigns had a single paragraph on a few issues. For a separate exercise, I checked a few leading Republican candidate sites as well. I can't say I was much more impressed with their issues sections.

I can't in good faith support Kucinich as a candidate. I saw him at the California convention and he's simply too weird. But I sure do wish other candidates would be as forthcoming on the issues. It was one of the first things that attracted me to Howard Dean too.

Hillary's Mortgage Plan

Jeff Commaroto — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:28:57 -0400

You didn't mention Clinton's page http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/mortgage/?sc=8
Though I 100% agree with you on the search Clinton's is actually right on the main page of her site right now under Spotlight so it should be pretty easy to find for that issue.

ElectionGeek
www.electiongeek.com

Ron Paul has LIBRARY of weekly essays and speeches on issues

Avery Knapp Jr — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:04:59 -0400

Its fascinating reading and eye-and-mind-opening stuff.

http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/

And its searchable! I realize it isn't part of the campaign directly, but the quality is excellent.

Avery J. Knapp Jr., M.D.

Taking a cue from Edwards, too

Asa Hopkins — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:26:33 -0400

Edwards sent a DVD about his health care plan to Iowans many months ago, so Hillary's just following in his footsteps.