by Frank James

Just catching up with some reading and noticed Slate's Christopher Beam had a funny piece that went up earlier this week in which he suggests that Sen. Barack Obama fight fire with fire by spreading Internet rumors that are as outrageously over-the-top in a "positive" direction as some of the Web rumors have been in a negative way.

A snippet:

Barack Obama is a DEVOUT CHRISTIAN. His favorite book is the BIBLE, which he has memorized. His name means HE WHO LOVES JESUS in the ancient language of Aramaic. He is PROUD that Jesus was an American.

Barack Obama's new airplane includes a conference room, a kitchen, and a MEGACHURCH.

Brilliant!

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

by Frank James

The percentage of Americans using the Internet to get news and information about the presidential campaign more than doubled in spring 2008 from spring 2004, according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

There aren't a lot of surprises in the survey. For instance, it found that younger voters used the Internet much more than older ones. And most of those voters who were most-active online supported Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton, which tracks with Obama's great success in fundraising and organizing online.

Meanwhile, supporters of Obama, the all-but-official Democratic presidential nominee, have a greater online presence than those of Sen. John McCain, his Republican counterpart.

Here's a snippet from Pew's press release:

WASHINGTON, DC - Fully 46% of all Americans have used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Dunkin Donuts has removed an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray following complaints that it showed the television personality wearing a black and white scarf that resembled a keffiyeh - a garment described by commentator Michelle Malkin as "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."

"Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons," Malkin wrote in an online column.

In a statement, Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin Brands Inc. described the item as a black and white silk scarf with a paisley design that was suggested by the stylist for the advertising shoot. "Absolutely no symbolism was intended," the company said.

Nonetheless, the company pulled the ad over the weekend "because the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."

Malkin, who praised the company's coffee, Munchkins and "brave and lonely stand in support of immigration enforcement -- refusing to hire illegal aliens and blowing the whistle on applicants with bogus Social Security numbers," has expressed her appreciation.

"It's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists," she wrote. "Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness."

by Whitney Blair Wyckoff

Who should be presumed Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's running mate? CQ Politics is letting readers be the judge.

They have top Republican Vice Presidential contenders, plus Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, facing off in a five-round, NCAA-style bracket. Now in the Final Four of the competition, the bracket is getting brutal. CQ has former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee running against Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin battling former White House Budget Director Rob Portman. Voting for this round will end May 19.

Big names like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have all been nixed in previous rounds. CQ says they would reveal the top pick on May 22.

Greg Giroux, senior writer for CQPolitics.com, said in a video on the CQ Politics Web site that chemistry, loyalty and executive experience where considered when they chose who to include in the bracket.

CQ says that readers will be able to vote on the Democratic ticket once the candidate is set.

By Rick Pearson

Sen. Hillary Clinton told voters in North Carolina today that her dispute with Sen. Barack Obama on the issue of suspending the federal gas tax for the summer was emblematic of a larger difference over the leadership styles of the two Democratic candidates for president.

"I think if you are a leader, you have got to look at both the headlines and the trendlines," said Clinton, who contends Obama is an elitist for opposing a gas tax cut to help the middle class Obama calls it a gimmick that will not provide any substantial relief for motorists or curb the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

"Now, it's important to me that we come up with solutions, and in a campaign, sometimes that's hard, because of the back and forth in the campaign," Clinton told voters. "But it is important, too, for you to see clearly what it is I propose and what I would do. There is no contradiction between trying to provide immediate relief and having a long-term vision and a plan for what we must do to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, and to be moving towards more home-grown fuels."

As she pushes the gas-tax cut proposal despite opposition from Obama and many economic experts, the Obama campaign was quick to point out that a top Clinton supporter also has voiced criticism of such a plan. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley called a gas tax cut "a subsidy for the oil companies," according to the Charlotte Observer in May of 2006. More recently, Easley told the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., last month that a state tax suspension wasn't on his agenda.

"There's really no alternative but to just get off of oil and we're going to have to do that with alternatives," Easley told the newspaper. "The country--America--has to be far more aggressive."

Clinton has proposed a tax on oil company profits to fund the tax suspension. Likely Republican nominee John McCain also has proposed a summertime lifting of the 18.4 cent per gallon federal tax, with the lost revenues to the highway construction trust fund coming from general federal revenues.

"This issue that we are facing today over gas prices, and the debate that my opponent and I are having over it, is really part of a larger difference between us," Clinton said. "It's something I hope you will think about when you go to vote - either voting early today or voting next Tuesday."

With the next round of presidential balloting only a few days away, the Clinton campaign gave its version of the TV advertising dollars both candidates are pouring into Indiana and North Carolina. The Clinton campaign says in Indiana, Obama has spent $5.6 million compared to her $3.2 million with the Illinois senator also pumping some ad dollars into the expensive Chicago media market to attract the attention of Northwest Indiana voters.

As for North Carolina, where Obama has long been favored, the dollar gap on TV spending is narrower, according to the Clinton camp. They say Obama has spent $4.9 million to Clinton's $3.5 million.

by Matthew Hay Brown

A day after the Politico outlined details of a tactical retreat by a dispirited antiwar movement, the executive director of MoveOn.org today unveiled what he called “an aggressive new campaign to bring our troops home as soon as possible.”

“More Americans than ever oppose the war,” Eli Pariser wrote in a message on the Huffington Post circulated by MoveOn. “Yet all the major contenders for the Republican nominations support it, and Congress is unable or unwilling (or both) to take President Bush to task.”

Pariser said MoveOn would pursue a three-pronged strategy. First, he said, the organization will campaign against Republican members of Congress who have supported the war.

“They’ve now cast their lot with President Bush, and it's our job to make sure that they get booted by voters next November,” he said. “And we need to make clear that it's bigger than that: their willingness to give the president the votes he needs to continue the war puts their party into a political death spiral that will doom it for a generation. A growing number of congressional Republicans have already gotten the message and have chosen to retire.”

Second, Pariser said, the organization “will have to build an anti-Iraq war Democratic caucus on the Hill that finally stands up to Bush by blocking his funding requests unless they include a binding and timely plan to exit Iraq” – an effort that could involve launching primary challenges against Democratic incumbents who have been insufficiently against the war.

“We consider it our job to help produce more than a merely Democratic majority,” he said. “We want an anti-war majority in 2008.”

by John McCormick

Sen. Barack Obama is leading all presidential candidates in campaign Web site visits, The Nielsen Company reported today.

Obama's web site had the most unique visitors in July, with 717,000, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Fellow Democrats Sen. Hillary Clinton had 437,000 unique visits, followed by 348,000 for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Among Republicans, Fred Thompson's ImWithFred.com drew the most unique visitors in July, with 381,000, even though he did not formally endorse his candidacy until Wednesday. The former Tennessee senator and “Law and Order” star has relied heavily on the Internet to generate interest in his candidacy.

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani ranked No. 2 among Republicans online, with 124,000 unique visitors. Mitt Romney ranked a close third, with 116,000 unique visitors. Ron Paul and John McCain rounded out the Republican campaign Web sites with 113,000 and 104,000 unique visitors, respectively.

“Consensus has been that Republicans have been slower to take advantage of the Web in their presidential campaigns, but Fred Thompson may be taking a cue from his Democratic counterparts,” Carolyn Creekmore, senior director of the firm's media analytics, said in a statement.

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama was the favorite presidential candidate in an Internet poll of supporters of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, an abortion rights group that also places a heavy emphasis on other reproductive health issues such as sex education and access to contraceptives.

Obama received votes from 42 percent of those who voted, besting rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Members of Planned Parenthood were invited to vote after Obama, Clinton and Edwards' wife Elizabeth spoke at a forum last Tuesday in Washington. The speeches were posted on the group's web site and members were allowed to vote through Friday, a spokeswoman said.

Obama's commitment to a robust sex education curriculum was highlighted by a minor controversy that erupted during the period of the Internet poll.

During his speech at the Planned Parenthood forum, Obama made reference to a controversy during his 2004 Senate race in which Republican opponent Alan Keyes criticized him for supporting legislation mandating an expanding sex education curriculum in Illinois schools reaching down to kindergarten.

Obama reaffirmed his support for an "age-appropriate" sex education curriculum including kindergarten at the forum. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked up on the comment, blasting Obama for supporting any form of sex education at such a young age.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 7:00 am CDT.

This election, Democratic presidential candidates are getting religion. And their web sites are starting to show it.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Saturday became the first Democratic presidential candidate to unveil a web site devoted to religious outreach. It includes a description of Obama's faith principles and testimonials from religious leaders, including his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright who says he supports Obama because "of his incarnated faith--his faith made alive in the flesh."

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) today unveiled his own web site themed on faith and moral leadership.

A spokesman for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said her campaign will have its own faith-oriented web site up soon.

Posted by David Lightman at 10 a.m. CDT

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama eked out a victory Thursday as the top choice of anti-war activists, as he won the MoveOn Town Hall vote with 27.87 percent of the total.

MoveOn, an activist group closely aligned with the Democratic party, hosted more than 1,000 events all over the nation, including several in Connecticut, Tuesday night. Candidates prerecorded short speeches detailing their positions on the Iraq war, and people were then invited to vote on the question, "Which candidate do you believe would be best able to lead the country out of Iraq?" Anyone who was a MoveOn member as of 7 p.m. Tuesday could vote.

The final tally:
Obama…27.87 percent.
2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards, 24.84 percent.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, 17.18 percent.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, 12.26 percent.
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, 10.7 percent.
Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr…6.19 percent.
Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd…1.05 percent.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 2:10 pm CDT.

Most of the major Democratic presidential candidates will be taking questions tonight on the Iraq War in a "virtual town meeting" that is billed as one of the largest and most ambitious online political forums.

Democratic presidential candidates John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama (in that order) all will do brief phone question-and-answer sessions on their views about Iraq beginning at 6:00 pm CDT tonight.

Members of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org voted on the questions each candidate is to be asked from among more than 6,800 potential questions that members submitted.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CDT.

In a cyberspace equivalent of the town hall meetings that presidential candidates hold in Iowa and New Hampshire, campaigns are making use of non-political web sites to present their political messages through a virtual dialogue with voters.

Sen. Barack Obama has now joined the celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey and Al Gore in posing a question on Yahoo! Answers.

The web site permits users to pose a question that other users can answer.

The question that Obama posed: How can we engage more people in the democratic process?

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:10 am CDT

The creator of a widely circulated viral web video portraying Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton as an Orwellian Big Brother was identified Wednesday as an employee of an Internet consulting firm that works for one of her opponents, Sen. Barack Obama.

The Obama campaign denied any involvement in the ad and the consulting firm said it fired the employee immediately after the company learned of his role.

The wide reach of the ad-it has received more than 1.7 million views on YouTube in just a few days-and the unmasking of its anonymous maker offer a glimpse of the changed media landscape of a nascent presidential campaign that is already bitterly competitive 10 months before the first primary.

The new popularity of web video allows broad distribution of clever political messages, often negative attack ads, which may not readily be traced to their creators.

Obama had said that not only did his campaign not produce the ad, but also that his campaign didn't have the technical know-how, the "capacity,'' to do something like this. Turns out his campaign's consultants knew how.

And for a fuller debate, including Clinton on the matter, see this package produced by CNN.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST

Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign is hoping to start transforming his web following into on-the-ground organizational strength with a series of events across the country on March 31, kicking off "a week of localized action."

The political power of his campaign will, of course, hinge on translating virtual support into on-the-ground practical organizational strength. The events at the end of the month could provide the campaign an early gauge of its ability to accomplish that.

Obama sent an e-mail late Monday to supporters who have enrolled on his web site asking them to host gatherings of friends and family that Saturday as a "launching pad for local action the following week."

"Some groups will plan one action, while others will plan dozens of events like canvassing or community service," Obama wrote in the e-mail.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST

Barack Obama's presidential campaign is claiming early success in cultivating spontaneous grassroots organizing with a web site that looks a lot like MySpace or Facebook.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out an e-mail on Thursday celebrating on-line enthusiasm during the opening of the Obama presidential campaign.

"Online, people have been inspired to engage with this campaign in record numbers," Plouffe writes.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 1:50 pm CST.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is already tapping its well-established network of small-dollar donors with an Internet-based campaign to raise $1 million in one week.

An e-mail sent out about an hour ago under the name of political strategist James Carville showed that the campaign had already raised $285,332 for its "One Week, One Million" fundraising campaign.

"Our 'One Week, One Million' campaign will send a clear message: Hillary won't back down, and we've got her back," Carville write in the e-mail.

Expect many more of such Internet fundraising campaigns in the year ahead. With this year's campaign expected to be the most expensive ever and the cost of an e-mail fundraising plea virtually free, candidates and their surrogates will be frequent visitors to the in-box of anyone who gives their e-mail address to a political campaign.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:27 pm CST.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama is taking a page from social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

In a web video e-mailed to supporters a few minutes ago, Obama not only urges them to watch his Springfield, Ill., announcement speech live via streaming video on the campaign web site.

He encourages them to set up a profile on the Obama web site. His description of the tools sounds a lot like some of the popular features on social networking sites. He suggests that supporters use the site to form their own virtual groups. And he notes that supporters can use the web site to create personal blogs to "chronicle your campaign experience."

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST.

Backers of Sen. Barack Obama have rapidly built up large networks of supporters using the popular social web site Facebook. The political value of the social networking groups is unclear but they provide a potential base of supporters to turn to for volunteer activities or, possibly, small contributions.

One group on www.Facebook.com, popular among college and high school students and recent alumni, already has attracted more than 175,000 members, with a goal of building a list of at least 1 million by the time Obama is scheduled to make his official announcement on Feb. 10.

The group, "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)", writes on its information page that it was created on Jan. 16 by Farouk Olu Aregbe, a recent University of North Dakota alumnus now living in Washington, DC. Aregbe could not immediately be reached.

The organization Students for Barack Obama also began as a Faecebook group, "Barack Obama for President in 2008," with more than 53,000 members now.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 1:54 pm CST.

Sen. Barack Obama is showing some early signs of a strong connection with supporters through the Internet.

Barely a week after announcing formation of a presidential exploratory committee through a video posted on his campaign web site, Obama has signed up more than 100,000 supporters through the site, according to the campaign.

"It's very, very impressive," said Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign and co-author of the book "Applebee's America."

"When Howard Dean--who was the Internet candidate and grassroots guy--finished his entire campaign, he had a total of 500,000 names. So Barack is way ahead of that pace," added Dowd, interviewed in an e-mail exchange.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:20 pm CST.

Elections for congressional party leaders typically are the ultimate inside-the-beltway conflict, with only members of Congress voting and the outcome chiefly of concern to the politicians and operatives who work inside the Capitol and the professional lobbyists clustered along Washington's K Street corridor of influence.

But the vote scheduled for Thursday on the new House Majority Leader--the no. 2 House Democratic leadership post behind incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)--has turned into a bitter, internecine brawl.

Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Penn.), a pro-gun, anti-abortion Vietnam Veteran who spent most of his congressional career as a bastion of the defense establishment and became a national figure when he called for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, is pitted against the current second-in-command, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a moderate who has the backing of most of Democratic committee chairmen who are the party's old bulls.