obama

With all things touch-screen in an increasingly touch-screen centric world, I was given the "plastic or paper" option for casting my vote in the California primary on this most super of Super Tuesdays. So, not liking the marker fumes and being used to touching everything on the iPhone anyway, I opted to vote "plastic."

The polling place had 10 conventional optical-scan voting stations with real paper ballots, but only 1 digital voting machine. San Francisco uses the Sequoia voting machine and, well, here's my story:

The clerk handed me a plastic card to insert into … Read more

NEW YORK--When it comes to a strategy for galvanizing young voters in the hours before the "Super Tuesday" primaries, a coalition of big-media outlets chose to throw an online and offline dialogue with candidates. A group of tech-friendly 20-somethings in New York decided the best way to organize young supporters of Democratic candidate Barack Obama would be to invite them to a massive dance party.

Over the past week, invitations created through Facebook and Evite flew around the inboxes of many plugged-in young New Yorkers: an appropriate donation to Obama for America would give them access to an … Read more

Soldiers have been warned to not use official computers to forward a chain email that purports to out presidential candidate Barack Obama as a Muslim who attended a madrassa, the Boston Globe reported.

Using government equipment to distribute this type of missive constitutes unlawful political activity and is against federal law and Army regulations.

"Currently there is a chain email floating around with the subject line: 'Who is Barack Obama,'" according to the official memorandum sent to all soldiers of the Army Medical Command in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. "Like virtually all chain emails this one is … Read more

NASHUA, N.H.--Hillary Clinton and John McCain won Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries the old-fashioned way: trekking to scores of coffee houses, diners, and high school gymnasiums. They shook hands, answered questions, and eventually convinced a plurality of voters.

This was politicking at its most traditional, employing venerable tactics like McCain's Straight Talk Express bus tour and Clinton's "Time to Pick a President" meetings with voters. By the time the polls closed, it was a rare Granite State resident who managed to avoid in-person contact with a would-be president or a pushy surrogate.

In other … Read more

HANOVER, N.H.--Barack Obama may be leading the Democratic presidential pack in every major poll here, but that didn't dissuade the Illinois senator from a final early-morning rally with the Facebook generation.

Clearly not content to leave their votes to the whims of online politicking, the Illinois senator stepped onto a stage fashioned in a Dartmouth College gymnasium, pulled an index card from his inside jacket pocket, and launched into a familiar set of talking points centered on what has become a familiar theme for his campaign: change and hope.

"My job this morning is to be … Read more

NASHUA, N.H.--With less than a day before New Hampshire's primary election, it's starting to get ugly here.

And no, we're not just talking about the warmer temperatures turning pristine white snow to gray slush. On Sunday evening, Hillary Clinton's campaign accused Barack Obama's operatives of violating New Hampshire law by dispatching prerecorded "robocalls" to folks on the federal "do not call" list.

Clinton's camp says the messages are also illegal because they fail to disclose they're associated with the Obama campaign--instead, implying they're sponsored by the … Read more

Iowa what?

Amid the frenzied press coverage over Thursday's too-close-to-call caucuses in the Hawkeye State, 153,226 MySpace.com users have already cast their (unofficial) votes.

In a set of "virtual primaries" held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Republican Rep. Ron Paul and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama were declared the winners of the News Corp.-owned social-networking site's polls.

The poll was conducted entirely through MySpace's Impact political site. And for those who have been following Election 2008 on the Web, neither "victory" is particularly surprising.

On the Democratic side, MySpace users selected Obama … Read more

Even though they don't have the visibility of MySpace or Facebook, the New York-based Community Connect has developed a series of niche social-networking sites that have managed to generate a significant following within the communities they represent.

AsianAve, the company's first project, launched in June of 1997. The site provides a service aimed at an Asian audience and somewhat resembles MySpace in look and feel. Since then, Community Connect has gone on to release BlackPlanet, MiGente, and Glee. Its most recent initiative, Faithbase, is a hub for Christians to meet and socialize with other Christians.

While Ning allows anyone to create their own social network, Community Connect has chosen to develop its own proprietary software and market five successive networks that each focus on a specific identity. I spoke to Kay Madati, vice president of marketing for the company, about what differentiates their networks from those created on Ning; while he wasn't familiar with Ning he pointed out that Community Connect's sites have more members than any off-the-shelf social networks he is aware of.

Faithbase officially launched in June 2007 but its "overt marketing push began about a month ago." The site currently has 51,000 members and experienced most of its growth over the past few weeks.… Read more