presidential

Hype or hope? CNN-YouTube debates make a splash

CNN and YouTube have created a virtual town hall for the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. (Well, the questioners will be there virtually; the Democratic candidates will be sitting in a CNN studio in Charleston, South Carolina and the Republicans will be in Florida for theirs.) It's been quite extraordinary to watch the lead up to this and the grand attention it's been getting. But is this event, touted even in the venerable New York Times as a "first of a new kind of political debate" truly something new or is it simply an interesting, … Read more

Campaign 2008: Small Internet donations add up

Small donors are having a significant impact on the amount of money that the Republican and Democratic candidates for president are raising. The Internet, providing the tools for grassroots activists to self-organize and conduct "p-commerce" by giving political money online, has clearly contributed to this.

The interesting story after six months of presidential fund-raising is that some candidates, notably Barack Obama, are doing much better at reaching small donors than others.

In a July 3 CNET post on what the Internet has done for presidential campaign fund-raising, I wrote, "the story technophiles should celebrate and fear how … Read more

What the Internet Has Wrought: Presidential Fundraising '00, '04, '08

As the Republican & Democratic presidential candidates report their fundraising numbers after two quarters, there are lots of stories to tell. What's one of the really amazing stories? It's not that Clinton the Democratic "frontrunner" raised about $10 million less than Obama the "challenger" in the last three months or that McCain the Republican "frontrunner" is in third place in fundraising for his party. (Well, those are pretty neat.) The story technophiles should celebrate and fear is how the Internet has enabled such an extraordinary, incredible, surprising increase in dollars collected compared … Read more

The hot fuel scam costs motorists big bucks

Check out the chart on gallons of energy lost that shows in each state will lose this summer to hot fuel, or gas that's sold at high temperatures. The high temperatures cause gas to expand. While the volume increases with temperature, energy content doesn't. As a result, motorists pay for fuel they don't really get. Rather than adopt a seasonal temperature standard, the oil industry sticks with a 60 degree Fahrenheit standard.

In California, 71.5 million gallons of phantom hot fuel will get sold in California during the summer and 21.9 million gallons will get … Read more

Net Neutrality a Hot Button Issue in the Upcoming Election?

Today in NewsMax.com, John Mercurio takes a look at the top presidential candidates and examines where they stand on the issue of Net Nuetrality. There aren't too many surprises, Democrats for the most part are in favor of legislation that will ensure the future of net neutrality and Republican's tend to be in opposition and prefer to allow the free market to run it's course. After all, if customer's aren't happy with a tiered-access internet then they'll simply go make their own internet right?

Ok, so it's not really that simple, but I'm not sure if all the politicians realize it. After all, it was only a year ago that Senator Ted Stevens was explaining to the floor that the internet is a series of tubes. All & All though, we as a population are becoming increasingly net-savvy and the web will certainly dominate politics more than ever before.

Rudolf Guiliani: open to nuclear, diet soda

Friday I had a Diet Coke with presidential hopeful Rudolf Guiliani. I like him. We yacked for about an hour.

His answer to my question on what he will do different about our oil dependency was a bit weak. He said we should encourage all alternatives including Nuclear and showed that he hasn't parsed the "energy" word into "electricity" and "oil". But he now has that down correct (you are welcome). He has all the right things to say. I am just worried about what we will learn about him under the constant … Read more

YouTube, CNN aim to 'revolutionize' presidential debate process

In a joint announcement on Thursday, YouTube and CNN unveiled their plans for co-sponsored Democratic and Republican presidential debates that aim to bring the standard televised events into the digital age of mashups, remixes and viral buzz. Not only will video content from the events (as well as other CNN debates) be made available for sharing and distribution online, but the debate questions themselves will come in the form of videos sent in by YouTube users.

(Video: YouTube's call for submissions)

In a dial-in press conference, representatives from both companies explained the new process and answered questions from reporters--on hand were Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.

All four projected eager enthusiasm that this new debate format would bring a more democratic angle to the way campaign dialogue is conducted. "This is how debates would have been done since the beginning of time, had the technology been available," Klein extolled. "It's really powerful, and it really brings the country to the presidential candidates in a very visual and contextual way," added Grove.

CNN, YouTube to unveil presidential debate details Thursday

In a press call on Thursday morning, CNN and YouTube will unveil the details for the cable news channel's upcoming presidential debate coverage, claiming that the two are "teaming up to provide an unprecedented debate format offering voters a larger role than ever before in debate history."

The press event will feature Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.

The traditional ownership format of televised presidential debate content, … Read more

Say what? The YouTube-ing of presidential debates

Hillary Clinton won't be the next lonelygirl15, but there's no question that she and all the other 2008 presidential candidates will have their turns on YouTube.

The question that has been posed, CNET News.com reports, is whether the Democratic and Republican National Committees will allow video of the candidates' debates into the public domain.

"In 2008, this will really be a year of YouTube, where the little guy can hold politicians accountable for their words and that's why we need presidential debate content to be in the public domain or Creative Commons, and not captive … Read more

McCain's 'Bomb Iran' song was anti-Muslim?

On Friday, we reported that YouTube erroneously deleted a video of presidential candidate John McCain singing an impromptu ditty about starting a war with Iran.

McCain had joked about it during a a campaign stop in South Carolina last week, singing: "That old, that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway."

There was a song called "Barbara Ann," first performed by The Regents and made popular by the Beach Boys.

But a group called Vince Vance and the Valiants actually released the "Bomb Iran" song during the 1979 hostage crisis, … Read more