barack

Whoops! L.A. Times' 2008 'Dewey Defeats Truman' moment

News flash! Barack Obama has actually chosen his former arch-rival, Hillary Clinton, to be his vice presidential candidate. And Bill Richardson. And Kathleen Sebelius. And four other Democrats too.

That's according to a set of Los Angeles Times articles that appeared on the paper's Web site early Saturday. The choice of Clinton was described as pairing "two rivals who waged a protracted -- and sometimes antagonistic -- battle for the party's presidential nomination" and warned that her "placement on the Obama ticket could renew scrutiny of the Clintons' financial dealings, including the undisclosed donors … Read more

The Obama SMS: (Un-)gratifying instantification

So the SMS went out to hundreds of thousands of Obama supporters. Not everyone got it at the same time (according to Textually.org, it took about 15 minutes for the bulk of the messages to get through the carriers' systems) or, in some cases, at all, but overall, the pre-announcement buzz (including some fake VP announcements -- "Michael Phelps!") was palpable and the word was spread.

"Be the first to know whom Barack picks as his running mate," had been the campaign's promise. The only problem: Those who had signed up to be the … Read more

Joe Biden's pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET's Technology Voters' Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

That's probably okay with Barack Obama: Biden likely got the nod because of his foreign policy knowledge. The Delaware politician is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee who voted for the war in Iraq, and is reasonably well-known … Read more

Presidential campaigns, journalists share lists on Google Reader

The press coverage of this year's campaign season can appear endless, but the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama are giving readers suggestions for which stories to follow on Google's Power Readers in Politics site, launched Monday.

The two campaigns, along with a handful of political journalists, have created lists on Google Reader of the sources they subscribe to. Users can subscribe to their lists, see what stories the politicos are sharing, and read their comments.

The journalists included on the Power Readers site include Mike Allen of the Politico, Chuck DeFeo of Townhall.com, John Dickerson … Read more

McCain's tech platform opposes 'unnecessary regulation'

John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has released his technology platform. Among the highlights: antipiracy measures, tax credits, and a formal federal policy of avoiding "unnecessary regulation."

These aren't much different from the responses the Arizona senator gave us during the primary season, but they do expand on what a McCain administration might do in practice.

McCain shares some views--like making the R&D tax credit permanent--with his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. (This is no surprise. For a politician, supporting the R&D tax credit is the tech-policy equivalent of kissing babies.)

The differences are … Read more

Barack Obama dominates Twitter

Sen. Barack Obama has already proven himself to be the most popular presidential candidate on the Internet, what with his more than 1.3 million Facebook supporters and lofty aims of 2 million online donors. Now the presumptive Democratic nominee is not only outshining other politicians on the Internet, but also the very stars of social networking--Obama has just overtaken Kevin Rose's spot as the most followed person on Twitter, according to Twitterholic.

By Twitterholic's last count, Obama stands at 56,661 followers, compared with Rose's 56,442. Obama also has the second highest number of friends … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 785: Don't cross the Olympic streams

We tried to give NBC the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Olympic streaming, but then we tried it. And it's ridiculous. Also, we wonder if the iPhone makes you fat, even as it fattens Steve Jobs' wallet. We also discuss the technicalities of invisibility cloaks, and opt-out of Obama's aggressively hip Internet outreach campaign.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 785

Defcon ends with researchers muzzled, viruses written http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10013156-83.html

Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10012612-83.html

Apple hits 3 million … Read more

The 404 160: Where we're Ogg at heart

On the show today: Erica Ogg from CNET's Crave takes time out of her NY vacation to chat with us about the Olympics, hockey, Chinese smile deficiencies, Facebook spam, Barack Obama's twitters, Antivirus XP, and Batman spoilers!>

Even though the Montauk Monster has thrown New York into a typhoon, our buddy Erica Ogg still makes it to the studio to join us for today's show. And what a great change of pace from our normal Monday show, huh? This is just what The 404 needs to brighten up our day. Erica writes for Crave, CNET's … Read more

Psst! Barack Obama will text you his veep details

In one of his recent--and subsequently parodied--attack ads on U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Republican John McCain accused his rival of being too much of a celebrity and not enough of a political leader.

That was what I first thought of upon learning that the Obama campaign has instituted text-message alerts to inform supporters of the candidate's choice for vice presidential running mate.

So this way, if you're OMG OMG TOTALLY DESPERATE to learn whom Obama has chosen for his veep, you can sign up and learn the moment it's announced--even before anybody Twitters it. … Read more