elections

With the Democratic and Republican national conventions coming up in Denver and St. Paul in the next few weeks, we are planning our coverage across CNET News and CBSNews.com. (Being part of CBS has some nice advantages.) CNET News reporters Declan McCullagh, Stephanie Condon, and Kara Tsuboi will be on the scene, covering the tech policies and positions of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. In addition, they will be roaming the convention floors, interviewing delegates, politicians, and pundits on tech-related issues such as Net neutrality, Internet taxation, and privacy.

CBS Evening News will have its usual wall-to-wall coverage … Read more

Rich Peters of Iowa City, Iowa, explained why he's a Democrat in a simple video with a few scene changes, a dog as a prop, and straightforward analysis-- and now YouTube will fly Peters to the Democratic Convention in Denver to present his video and travel with the press pool for a day.

Viewers chose Peters' video out of five finalists presented in YouTube's video contest posing the question, "Why are you a Democrat in 2008?" The Democratic National Convention Committee picked the five finalists from hundreds of submissions. The Republican National Committee is hosting a … Read more

It's a fundamental rule of journalism: let the facts speak for themselves.

An Atlantic Monthly article published online Monday presents the facts of Sen. Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid in the form of dozens of e-mails, memos, and other pieces of correspondence collected from inside the campaign. The magazine also makes a complete index of the documents available.

While the memos largely reinforce earlier reports of internal disputes in the campaign, it is sometimes surprising what one learns (Bill Gates apparently at one point asked Clinton strategist Mark Penn to make him "more human"), and what … Read more

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

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

LAS VEGAS--Transitions between presidential administrations are typically influence-peddling, power-consolidating, appointee-vetting exercises run by Washington insiders. Perhaps that's why the quintessential Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is trying to insert itself into the process.

The private organization, which has close ties to the U.S. military and counts Henry Kissinger on its payroll, has gathered about 35 people and awarded them the official-sounding title of "Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency." Adding to the formality are some closed-to-the-public meetings and ex-officio members from federal agencies, congressional offices, and the nebulous "… Read more

News Corp.'s MySpace has the presidential debate stamp of approval.

The social network has been officially sanctioned by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) to launch MyDebates.org, which will debut Wednesday. The site offers a downloadable app that will stream the presidential debates live, archive them for on-demand viewing (searchable and tagged, naturally), participate in polls, and track the candidates' stances on issues.

The first presidential debate is September 26, followed by a vice presidential debate on October 2. This marks the first time that the CPD has officially partnered with a Web property for debate coverage.

Since … Read more

While many headlines from Sen. Barack Obama's speech on energy policy on Monday focused on tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a look at the details shows a significant pledge to clean technologies.

The presumed Democratic nominee for president delivered a speech in Lansing, Mich.--an area hit from the declining auto industry--to unveil his New Energy for America plan.

Overall, it calls for investing $150 billion over 10 years to create new clean-energy jobs and to cut U.S. dependence on imported oil from the Middle East and Venezuela.

Short-term measures are geared at lowering gasoline prices by tapping … Read more

Still stunned by the tale of a man who called 911 to complain that Subway had left the sauce off his sandwich, I discover another telephony cacophony.

It surrounds robocalling.

Which, apparently, involves some clever and remarkably cost-effective technology that allows millions of calls, many featuring the (scripted, naturally) voices of the famous, to be made simultaneously on behalf of political candidates.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, activists are fighting to regulate political calls in a way similar to the Do Not Call Registry that came into effect five years ago to regulate America's (or, sometimes, Canada's) … Read more