Pure Horserace: It's MySpace, Not Yours
With Mitt Romney's MySpace profile launch over the weekend, all the top-tier candidates now have a presence on the social networking Web site. Or do they?
A quick look at most candidates' profiles reveals the usual: Profiles with videos, photos, lists of friends, links and, in some cases, music. But visitors going to Rudy Giuliani's profile are greeted with a mostly blank page and an ominous message: "This profile is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile."
When asked about the profile's private status by CBSNews.com, a Giuliani aide would only say that the campaign is "committed to reaching out to voters of all ages across a variety of mediums including the Internet."
Perhaps Giuliani wants his supporters to feel like they're in an exclusive club. Or, as one Romney aide speculated, maybe the profile is still in an "under construction" state and not ready for public viewing. But as of now, the profile's contents will remain a mystery.
The profiles that are public reveal some interesting, if not important, information: If you want to be one of John Edwards top friends, make sure he's in your profile's photo. Romney apparently is a big fan of the remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation," though his campaign denies this is a dig at Hillary Clinton's professed desire to start a conversation with America.
To view all the candidates' MySpace profiles, visit the site's new Impact page, which was launched on Monday.
MySpace, YouTube — How About We're Fooled? That 1984 Apple flashback ad we told you about yesterday has become a big story. The ad, featured on YouTube, is a replica of the famous Super Bowl ad in which Apple took on "Big Brother" — only this time, it's supporters of Barack Obama taking aim at Hillary Clinton.
If you haven't heard about it by now, you're probably not much interested in tuning into the news — it's been played over and over on cable and broadcast news, talked about all over the Internet and written about in news reports. Something that has so far been clicked on about a million times has, thanks to the mainstream media, been put in front of millions more. It's a case study on how to bottle viral marketing magic and sell it to a mass audience. Keep on top of this trend.
One And Done?: Every four years some campaign gimmick pops up that gets everyone talking. Advice is free, after all, and dispensing it from the sidelines is free of consequences. You may have heard some suggestions in the past, such as those who advised presidential candidates to pick their running mates before the primaries and run as a team for the nomination. Or all those pundits who think it would have been nifty for John Kerry to have announced his entire Cabinet prior to the election.
Of course, almost never are such tactics seriously considered, let alone tried. The latest piece of advice that has been thrown around is for John McCain, who at 70 years of age, is fending off questions about possibly entering the White House as the oldest first-term president in history.
We're not sure where the idea first surfaced, but some observers are talking about the possibility that McCain could do something to put age concerns to rest — pledge to serve just one term. Doing so would allow McCain to rise above "politics as usual," choose a strong running mate and make his age a non-issue.
Just don't count on it happening. Such a move might solve a short-term problem — but it would cause a bigger one should McCain be elected. This always sounds like a nice campaign slogan — elect me and I'll focus on nothing other than solving the nation's problems for four years.
The reality is something else. Any president taking office under such a pledge would not only be a lame duck on day one, he or she would immediately take a backseat to the political concerns of their vice president. Look for McCain to address the age question in other ways. Asked if he had given any thought to the possibility of a one-term pledge, McCain told the Politico's Jonathan Martin, "No I haven't," adding, "I'm going to have to have my 94-year-old mother on the campaign trail with me."
Domestic Tranquility: Running for president must be a pretty stressful experience, which makes it a hard time to ditch bad habits like smoking. But appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live," Obama indicated he had little choice if he wanted to keep things happy at home. Asked how his efforts were going, Obama replied, "I'm doing all right. That shows you how scared I am of my wife, that I cut that out." Of course, there's that public image to think for a little additional incentive.
By Vaughn Ververs