New Media + Politics = A Whole New Ball Game

While it's certainly been years since the Internet revolutionized the way politicians campaign and raise funds, the massive flood of media throughout our culture continues to evolve. Some political hopefuls are keeping up with the game, while others are keeping the bench nice and warm. In case you've been living under a giant boulder, there's a presidential election in less than two years people! Here's a look at some who are doing it right and others who could learn from them. See for yourself:

DEMOCRATS

• NC Senator John Edwards (officially running) - His Web site is very..."hip," for lack of a better word. You can see what he's currently listening to, the books he's reading and a list of his favorite links (he's a huge UNC basketball fan!) . In addition to a typed blog, he keeps an up-to-date video blog too! And if that's not enough for you, check out his MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube pages. He deserves the "cool-guy-who-gets-it" award.
  


• Illinois Senator Barack Obama (committee formed) - A clean site with some well-produced video, including this one of his announcement to form a presidential exploratory committee.
  


• Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (officially running) - His site is just shy of a jumbled mess, but to be fair, he gets points for his video blog too.

REPUBLICANS

• Former NY Gov. George Pataki (expressed interest) - He currently uses the 21st Century Freedom Web site as an outlet for his political campaign (Wiki explains the conditions for listing a candidate and rules about Web sites). You can soak up all of his campaign news from his Podcast.
  


• Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (expressed interest) - Overly-busy Web sites like his make my brain (and fragile eyes) go crazy. He gets a nod for his Podcast, but minus points for broken RSS feed links.
  


• Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney (committee formed) - What I liked about his site was MittTV, his presentation of a series of videos (not just his TV spots) that are well-produced and get his ideals across. While similar to a video blog, I liked that it was sharp-looking and still user friendly.

Because of the rules and regulations regarding candidates and their Web sites, it will be interesting to see new domains popping up once official bids have been announced. Of course there are several other potential candidates from parties that aren't red or blue. Wikipedia's 2008 Presidential Election page breaks it down really well. Someone who's interested in the ever-changing role of the Internet in politics (and who has more time on their hands than me!) would have fun grading the candidates based on their level of "Web-savviness" and ranking them against each other. Has anyone else seen/heard/read/blogged about such a thing? I'm very intrigued!