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I’m actually quite surprised by how little national attention the Senate race in Minnesota has been getting. Of all of the Senate races currently happening, it’s this race, without a doubt, that will be one of the most lively and expensive.

For those of you who haven’t been following this race, basically its between the incumbent, Norm Coleman and former Saturday Night Live comedian and ultra-lefty, Al Franken.

Judging by this article, it looks like its going to only get more heated.

From CNN.com:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The first time Norm Coleman went up against a celebrity for statewide office, he was slammed by former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura.

Coleman did better against his second famous opponent, edging former Vice President Walter Mondale to win his seat in the U.S. Senate.

He’s hoping to repeat that success in his third run against a well-known name in as many tries — Democrat Al Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” comedian and radio host.

Sen. Coleman has become one of the state’s most recognizable politicians.

But in preparing for his latest fight, Coleman has tried to turn the spotlight back on Franken, criticizing some of the more outrageous or profane things he’s said or written in years of comedy routines and liberal commentary.

“If the partisan disease is what’s tearing Washington apart, for years he was part of that,” said Coleman, who officially launches his campaign Wednesday. “The talk radio culture, the Rush Limbaughs, the Ann Coulters, the Al Frankens. If that’s the disease, I’ve tried to be the cure to that disease for a long time.”

Coleman said Franken wouldn’t be able to “work across the aisle with people he has so ridiculed and so debased.”

It’s important to note that when Norm Coleman was first elected as the Mayor of Minneapolis in 1993, he ran as a Democrat, so he already has many ties to the Democrat establishment in the state. However, I guess “once friends, always friends” doesn’t apply here:

Coleman is no stranger to wild campaigns. First elected mayor of St. Paul in 1993 as a conservative Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party three years later. Many Democrats have resented him ever since.

Obviously, this isn’t going to be an easy race for Coleman to win. However, I’m convinced that his campaign manager, the “behind the scenes rockstar,” Cullen Sheehan has a strategy that will be able to appeal to the conservative base, but also reach out to the moderates who might not be sure how they are going to vote yet.

This is a race that I think the blogosphere can have a great impact in, simply because many people are going to be interested in following what Al Franken is doing as the campaign heats up.

I think its almost impossible to predict the outcome of races in Minnesota, just look at their former Governor, former WWF start Jesse Ventura.

I thought Clinton’s just lied or changed the subject when they didn’t want to answer questions, but it looks like Chelsea is rebelling.

From CNN.com:

Chelsea Clinton has fielded a lot of questions as she campaigns for her mother’s presidential bid, but on Tuesday the former first daughter faced a particularly awkward query for the first time.

Campaigning at Butler College in Indianapolis, an audience member asked the 28 year-old whether the Monica Lewinsky scandal had damaged her mother’s reputation.

And here is her response:

And more 

Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday said that his terrorist army’s targeting of Israeli civilian centers has made it possible for the Jewish state to be “eliminated,” The New York Sun reported. “Can Israel be eliminated?” Nasrallah asked Hizballah supporters during a rally in Beirut. “Yes and a thousand yeses, Israel can be eliminated.” During the summer of 2006, Hizballah fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli civilians in fighting ended by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for the terrorist army’s disarmament. The Security Council has since expressed “grave concern” over reports of continued arms smuggling to Hizballah. Click here to learn more about Hizballah’s threatening behavior (source: AIPAC)

From Bloomberg.com:

March 25 (Bloomberg) — Former first lady Nancy Reagan endorsed John McCain’s presidential campaign in a move that might encourage conservative Republicans to rally around the Arizona senator’s bid for the White House.

Reagan called McCain a “good friend for over 30 years” who is well prepared to become commander in chief.

“My husband and I first came to know him as a returning Vietnam War POW and were impressed by the courage he had shown through his terrible ordeal,” Reagan said in a statement today. “I believe John’s record and experience have prepared him well to be our next president.”

The endorsement may help McCain win over Republicans who revere Reagan’s late husband, former President Ronald Reagan, while chafing at McCain’s willingness over the years to buck the party’s line on issues ranging from taxes to campaign finance reform.

Reagan is to meet with McCain today at her Los Angeles-area home, said Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.

While this isn’t a huge shock, this could be a very important, much needed fundraising component to McCain’s campaign. While I’m sure she wont do a fundraising tour, I wouldn’t be shocked to see her name in an upcoming direct mail piece.

Over the weekend I wrote a post titled “Jim DeMint, Senator 2.0 - Part 1,” where I made the argument that of all the incumbent Senators, Jim DeMint from South Carolina was much further ahead of the game than anyone else at this point in terms of using the internet to reach out to constituents, as well as to draw national attention to an issue.

This conclusion was made based on some preliminary research that I have been conducting recently as update a paper that I wrote in 2007, which evaluated how incumbents and candidates utilized their campaign websites to reach out even further into their communities in the 2006 Senate races. Surprisingly, in terms of progression, I’m still seeing some incumbents and candidates that just don’t get it (I’ll post their sites eventually).

I have only posted part 1 of my comments on Senator DeMint’s online strategy thus far, which was only related to how he used landing pages to increase his contact list. This has been one of his most successful tools (as my 3 page post reflected), and it is now gives him and endless supply of opportunities as he introduces future legislation that needs national exposure. In the coming days I’ll begin working on part two, which will focus primarily on how he uses the websites themselves to boost user-interest and user-involvement.

The reason that I mention all this is because I came across an article today that is also illustrating some of the same points that I made this weekend. Finally, Senator DeMint is getting some long overdue credit for the things he’s been doing online.

Here is just a bit of the article (h/t to Joe Mansour at TechRepublican):

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is using the Internet more than ever — perhaps more than any other Senator — to mobilize voters across the country behind some of his biggest issues, such as eliminating earmarks and strengthening the border.

He knows his ability to twist arms under the Capitol dome is often limited, but if he can craft a suitable message and spread it all over the Web, then eventually bloggers, talk radio hosts and the mainstream media will get the word out in a way DeMint never could before.

The rest of the article can be read here.

I know that in a previous post I said that Republicans need to start coming up with more humorous approaches for online videos, however this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

In one respect, I think its great that people of all shapes, sizes and talent levels (emphasis on talent levels) are trying to help boost John McCain’s campaign, however could we hold off on that until we have a little more variety?

This sounds horrible, but if we have videos like this being the answer to things like Obama Girl, etc, we’ll only serve as a laughingstock for many online. Unfortunately, I could totally see this video landing on the John Stewart Show.

Without further ado (h/t to David All):

I’m not sure how many of you have seen this video yet from the people at Comedy Central, but I think this is extremely hilarious. Even though its more satirical than the Obama-girl video, I think that Republicans should start thinking along the lines of using a little humor to push certain messages.

While there is plenty of mud to sling, sometimes a little “sugar coating” can make things much sweeter in the end (hopefully “the end” meaning victory for us).

Maybe I’ll try my hand at some videos before November, but we’ll see.

For those of you who are curious, the Lil’ Bush girl is Amy Ryerson and of course, the Obama Girl is the infamous Amber Lee Ettinger.

In terms of children of Presidential hopefuls, I’m quite confident that no child has played as significant of a role in their fathers campaign for the White House than Meghan McCain.

I’ve been to her blog McCainBlogette.com, a few times now and I think the way she’s been able to show a different, more youthful side to her father and his campaign has been nothing short of impressive. What’s even more impressive about Meghan McCain, more so than her blog, is the fact that it doesn’t seem like she is going to pretend to be someone she isn’t just because her father is running for President.

Working on a variety of campaigns and more recently living and working in DC, one thing I’ve come to realize is that authenticity isn’t an expectation inside the Beltway or in politics, in fact I don’t even think it’s an assumption anymore. I think politics has become more of a “who knows who,” “who knows what,” and “who knows how” type of world. However, I will argue that knowing “who’s doing who” has seemed to carry some people I know quite far in this city.

Being someone who likes to see people for who they really are, it’s refreshing to see people, especially those tied to front-runners maintaining their authenticity. I guess in the world of politics, being authentic can very well be considered a maverick lifestyle.

With that being said, I was quite pleased to see that Meghan McCain agreed to do an interview with one of my favorite magazines, GQ (yes, I’m sure you’re surprised it isn’t the National Review or something). In this months GQ, which is also their Annual Love, Sex & Madness Issue (just an FYI), Meghan gives a more unfiltered view of who she is.

While I’m not going to go into the whole article, there are just a few interesting things I thought I’d pull from it.

In discussing her cultural tastes:

Meghan’s cultural tastes are pretty straight down the middle for a recent college grad. She went crazy for Superbad, Knocked Up, and The Big Lebowski (“I fucking love that movie”). On TV she’s currently riveted by MTV’s A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. “It’s a bisexual-dating show!” she cries. “It’s hilarious!”

When she ticks off a list of celebrities she’s into, she offers a surprising pick: the burlesque stripper Dita Von Teese. “I know she’s not someone you would expect the daughter of a Republican candidate to like, but I love her,” she says. “I love the way she dresses. If I could look like that all day, I would…in her day clothes, I mean.

“And, yes, I know she’s a fetish star, but”—she lowers her head for this—“I think that’s rock ’n’ roll.”

One thing that I’ve noticed from working on campaigns is that when it comes to talking about what television shows the politicians like, for Republicans it seems that the answer has always been something safe like 24, Prison Break, etc. Of the campaigns that I’ve worked on where the children spoke at events, or were ever interviewed, I can guarantee that something like A Shot of Love would never have come up. However, it’s pretty safe to assume that they all watch similar shows.

I think this is just one of the ways that Meghan McCain is able to show that she doesn’t care what people think about her and I think that is something that she got from her dad. In looking at the polls, I think it’s that attitude (vs. “politics as usual”) that will show him as a strong leader and lead to him getting elected.

As for Dita Von Teese, I don’t think that there is any straight guy reading this article who doesn’t think she is one of the best natural beauties around, who like the McCain’s, doesn’t care what people think about her (Dita’a past marriage to Marilyn Manson confirms that).

On Mitt Romney:

By the time we arrive at Garduño’s, the discussion has moved on to the Romney brothers’ dad, Mitt. It’s two days after he suspended his run, and we’re trying to puzzle out why voters never really got around to liking the guy.

“Mitt didn’t keep it real,” Meghan says, munching on a nacho chip.

My quick two cents on Garduño’s: Please note there are much better places in Scottsdale than Garduño’s Margarita Factory. Don’t assume that just because Meghan McCain goes there that the food is spectacular, it really isn’t. Though, the drinks are cheap.

As for her thoughts on Mitt Romney, I would have to agree with her. Mitt Romney is/was a great candidate for President, however if I were his consultant advising him for his next run in a few years, the biggest piece of advice that I could give him is “keep it real.” I think Mitt did a great job of this in the beginning, however it seems that he got caught up in trying to always give the best, most diplomatic answer, he made himself look like a political hack, even though that really wasn’t who he was, or how he saw his candidacy. Politics as usual isn’t going to work in this election.

On dating:

“You want to hear a hilarious story?” she asks. “I guess you can print this if you want, but it’s not my finest moment. Once, this guy at Columbia was talking to his friends. He was like, ‘Meghan McCain this’ and ‘Meghan McCain that,’ going on, saying that he’d slept with me and that it was great. I just happened to be walking by at the time. I was like, ‘Hi, I’m Meghan McCain. I didn’t realize that we’d met.’ He turned ghost white, so I showed him my ID, and I was like, ‘I’m glad you were sharing our passionate love story.’ ”

Meghan confesses that her real love life hasn’t been especially active lately. She’s gone on only one official date since her dad’s campaign began, but she bowed out early with a “headache.” Then there was also the rumor that she’d been seen with—horrors—a Ron Paul supporter.

“That has been blown out of proportion in every way!” she exclaims. “What happened is that I dropped my coffee and he helped me with it and was like, ‘Do you want to go to Baja Fresh?’… Not that I would be against dating a Ron Paul supporter, but he turned out to be very strange. He collected Barbie dolls. I called my girlfriends after and was like, ‘That’s weird, right?’ ”

I’m not sure thats weird when discussing Ron Paul supporters. I think that there are many who would agree that he definitely has a unique group of backing him. The Barbie collection doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, I’d imagine that for some of those guys, between flooding message boards and impromptu rallies, Barbie dolls are probably the closest thing to a girlfriend that many of them have (ok, I’m only half serious on that one).

As for the guy at Columbia, all I can say is that its probably just going to get worse. In fact, there are two bloggers in particular that I know who are convinced that their blogging activities are going to score them a date with Meghan. I didn’t think that they were serious at first, but eventually I was convinced that they truly think that their basement blogging is going to win her heart. Some guys might use words to win a girl over, some might try jewelery and I guess in todays tech world, others will try to win them over with Digg’s and Technorati rankings… I know some women say size matters, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t referring to the size of ones blogroll…

Guys, take note:

“I like bad boys for the most part,” Meghan adds. “In the past, I have liked tattooed guys who wear Converse. But I’d be open to anyone as long as you have a sense of humor. I have also dated totally normal guys who look like you, I guess—D.C.-looking guys.”

D.C.-looking guys?

“Journalist, yuppie, metrosexual guys. How’s that? You’re metro.”

“I’m an acquired taste,” Meghan says matter-of-factly. “I’m a daughter of a Republican senator. I started dating this guy, and he wouldn’t date me anymore because he found out who my dad was. He says, ‘I don’t agree with his politics.’ Isn’t that terrible? That’s why you’re dumping me? We only went on two dates, but still. Not everybody wants to go out with somebody so high-profile. If they do, they’re investment bankers. Seriously. Ugh! If you’re an investment banker, don’t hit on me. You can quote me. I’m not interested.”

I have a feeling that might have ruined the next few months for a couple of people that I know. Sorry guys.

On Politics:

Besides, it’s not like Meghan has ever toed the Republican Party line. It’s well- known that four years ago, when her father decided it’d be in his best interest to back George W. Bush’s reelection, she voted for John Kerry. “My dad actually outed me,” she says.

“I’m an Independent. Socially liberal, economically conservative. I believe in a lot of Republican ideals, with the war being the number one thing I completely agree with my dad on.”

I’d argue that a good portion of Republicans in this age group (18-30) can see things through the same political point of view as Meghan McCain. Many will probably challenge me on this, but I think that amongst young Republicans, in terms of social issues (especially homosexuality), that they are more moderate than some of the “old guard” would like. But its one of those things that Party is going to have to work with, otherwise some of these young people will leave the party all together and become independents. Some could, and have argued that this phenomenon could very well lead to a surge in the growth of the Libertarian Party.

It’s one of many great political/social dilemmas the GOP is going to have to face in the coming years, which is why focusing on the economy above all else has to be the top priority for boosting support of the party’s candidates. I cant even think of the last time that I heard any of the three remaining candidates discuss social issues, it seems that they are only sticking to the economy and Iraq, aka, “playing it safe.”

There is a lot more to the interview and I urge everyone to read it here.

While I’ve never been a fan of the well-marketed term “web 2.0,” the concepts and applications that are defining this “second generation” of the internet have completely reshaped the face and perspective of American politics, particularly on the grassroots level.

Understanding the great reach that social networks, wikis, blogs, etc. can have in terms of targeting an audience of potential activists, there have been some politicians who have greatly embraced these technologies and integrated them into their campaigns. Even though I think that the majority of those running for office don’t realize, or simply ignore the importance of utilizing the internet well as a means to reach a larger audience, there are a few politicians, who without a doubt understand the stakes and opportunities a well-run online campaign can create.

Of all of the sites that I have looked at and have been researching for the updated version of a paper I originally wrote in 2007 (research conducted throughout 2006), “The New Political Stump: Campaign Web-Style in Senate Elections - Campaign ‘06” (which I’ll probably post soon), there is one incumbent Senator that stands out more than any of the incumbents that I have researched, Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina.

In 2006, I focused primarily on three areas of the campaign website: website style, components and personalization, then compared their online methodology/approach to the “on the ground” interaction discussed in Home Style: House Members in Their Districts by Richard Fenno . For the updated 2008 paper (which I hope to have completed shortly after the election), the analysis of website style, component usage, personalization and comparison to Homestyle will still remain, however I have also added a new category to track: update frequency.

While campaign season is far from over, in looking at the incumbent website from both sides of the aisle, it appears the Jim DeMint will probably be the leader of the pack.

The DeMint online approach, while being extremely clean and simple, has a variety of components that I think could and should be analyzed in detail, and hopefully other Republican incumbents will try and implement some of the same strategies and techniques into their websites.

Instead of writing a 10,000 word+ post on my thoughts of the DeMint online strategy I’ve decided to break it into sections, and am hopeful that people will share their ideas, strategies and/or feedback.

Part 1: The Landing Page

On Senator DeMint’s main campaign site, http://www.jimdemint.com, the first thing you’ll see each time you come to the page is an opportunity to sign-up. However, instead of just saying “join our email list” like some sites have done, the DeMint campaign has used a pledge to take the place of a traditional landing page sign-up. This approach is one that I have seen grow slowly as campaign websites evolve, and I’m confident that with this evolution will be an increase in the number of email addresses they acquire.

The appeal of a landing page is something that will make or break a particular online outreach campaign (of course, design sometimes plays a factor too). It’s common in politics for politicians to make sure that their messages touch on at least one of Aristotle’s means of persuasion. While establishing ethos (credibility), pathos (emotional) and logos (logic) appeals on a singular level might work for some things, if you don’t have all three of those on your landing page, delivered in a small package (in terms of words count), people are going to be suspicious, or not be captivated by your site and simply leave.

DeMint has two landing pages in particular that I think are extremely effective: one at http://www.jimdemint.com/ and one that was just released at http://www.completethefencenow.com/. Of the two, http://www.jimdemint.com/ , while not being perfect, is a great example of implementing all three of Aristotle’s means of persuasion in campaign websites.

Taking Aristotle’s means of persuasion into consideration, here is my take on how these landing pages establish them:

• Ethos - Using this appeal is one advantage that any incumbent will have over their opponent, simply because the title “Senator,” “Congressman,” etc. will usually grant instant credibility on the message you are trying to push (despite continually low approval ratings). DeMint’s main landing page does this well, with the words “Senator Jim DeMint” being prominent in the pledge. However, Senator DeMint’s newest landing page doesn’t have the word “Senator” displayed in any prominent location, which could have some impact on the response. Though I will argue that it’s always beneficial to have different landing pages running in tandem so you have something to compare data against to better establish what works best.
• Pathos - Money and border security, I don’t know what other issues could have more emotional appeal.
• Logos - Instead of using text to explain why the visitor should take immediate action on this issue, Senator DeMint does something that I wish more incumbents would do: get on YouTube. In doing so, the page viewer actually sees and hears him delivering his message. One could argue that the videos alone touches on all three of the means of persuasion, but it definitely plays a huge role in establishing the rationale for why people should take immediate action on this issue.

Take note of the emphasis on immediate action. You’ll notice that there aren’t any links that would take the visitor off of the campaign site. Like most Americans, I suffer from web-based ADD and that is something that should be taken into consideration when candidates design their landing pages and websites. For example, a candidate’s website probably shouldn’t link to sites other than their campaign site, simply because one new link or idea can completely destroy a thought process and kill the chance of a conversion.

Along those same lines, when there are links on a candidates page, I think that they should open in a new tab, especially if there is any deviation in subject matter and/or design. This way, if people get bored with the new window, when they close that tab, they will still have the initial page that they clicked on still in their browser. The one caveat to this would be the link following the “submit” button, where in that instance I don’t see any reason why they would need the next page to open in a new tab.

While I think both of DeMint’s landing pages are far more creative than many that I have seen amongst incumbent campaigns, the one major change that I would suggest is changing the pledge on http://www.jimdemint.com/. While the message is good, I don’t think its the best idea to have such important text displayed as an image.

Aside from it not getting cached by search engines, it also increases the page load time (that image alone is 100k). Beyond that, I think that every Republican should make sure their sites are as inline with the standards of Section 508 as possible, simply because I haven’t seen many campaign websites (incumbent or challenger) that have followed this protocol.

I look forward to the day when a Republican Senator is attacked by a Democrat, saying that Senator XYZ doesn’t care about making government accessible to everyone, then having Senator XYZ come back saying that not only does he think government should be accessible, but he also believes that campaigns should be accessible, then outline how he went the extra mile to ensure Section 508 compliance, while his opponent made no apparent effort to even come close to increasing their accessibility. Let’s be honest, simple things like alternative text (alt) descriptions aren’t that difficult. My inner-geek anxiously awaits the day I hear a candidate use the “alt-descriptions” and “clean code” in a response.

One example of how Republicans could have fun with this would be with Senator Chris Dodd (CT), who somehow won a Golden Mouse Award and been a self-proclaimed leader in the Senate for those with disabilities. However, if you visit his Golden Website, you’ll notice that it’s nowhere near section 508 compliance. What’s even more amusing is when visit the page “Dodd Introduces Disabilities Savings Act of 2008” not one of the images has alternative text, so even if a person with disabilities wanted to be more interactive with the site of the Senator who is a “leader” for those with disabilities, and maybe get a description of the pictures so they could visualize what is happening, not even his site offers those capabilities. Of the Section 508 requirements, the alt-descriptions are probably the easiest things any site can fix.

I’m not trying to attack Senator Dodd, in fact, he is one of the few Democrats in the Senate who I can actually tolerate. However, I’m just using him as an example to show some of the opportunities that could be made if incumbents and candidates got ahead of the curve and made the Dem’s follow.

It should be noted that on Senator DeMint’s office page, his images do provide alternative text. Why didn’t he get a Golden Mouse?

Yes, I’m a deep thinker. Though I will concede that I haven’t really gone out of my way to achieve section 508 compliance on any of my websites, though CMS’s like Joomla 1.5 and its tableless designs have made significant strides towards making compliance easy to implement (I’m sure Drupal is similar in that sense).

In the next few days I’ll write Part 2: Website Style

Note: I do not consider myself an expert on any of this. Instead, I base my judgments on the research and implementations I’ve been conducting and analyzing since 2005. If you disagree, or would like to elaborate on any points or observations that I’ve made, please leave comments. Also, this post contains no direct text from either version of my papers. With that being said, each of the thoughts mentioned are my own, thus have no need for attribution. If you’re doing research on a similar topic and need help finding established text to cite, I’d be happy to provide you with some good starting points.

Other good bloggers to check out for similar subject matter (style, marketing, etc):

• David All (TechRepublican.com)
• Joe Mansour (TechRepublican.com)
• Patrick Ruffini (PatrickRuffini.com)
• Then everyone else at TechPresident.com

If you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

Monday Iraq, Wednesday Israel, today England and soon France; all part of the McCain 08′ World Tour, featuring special guests Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham.

In all seriousness, I have no doubts that this trip is relevant to their positions on the Senate Armed Services Committee, but at the same time this trip has given McCain a great opportunity to show the world that the Republican Party isn’t just composed of President Bush.

From Senator McCain’s latest stop in London, England, via CNN.com:

LONDON, England (CNN) — President Bush is still firmly in the White House, but Sen. John McCain was busy presenting the new face of Republican America to the world this week.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been burnishing his worldwide image, first stopping in Iraq, his eighth visit, then Jordan and Israel.

Thursday it was photo-op time — and some discussions — with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street in London. On Friday he heads to France to meet with French President Sarkozy

It’s been the perfect opportunity for the Republican heir-apparent to stack up some credits as international statesman while the Democrats are still squabbling over their nominee.

Officially McCain was touring as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He came out of Downing Street with his co-members Sens. Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham.

Of course, when the Republican nominee for the President of the United States is traveling abroad with his friends/Senate colleagues/supporters, it was inevitable that there would be some campaign conversation ignited.

But there was no doubt who was the focus of the trip. And in case the British media hadn’t appreciated the message, Lieberman, who was the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2000, was happy to help with the with public relations.

“Sen. McCain is a consistent and steadfast internationalist on matters both diplomatic and economic and environmental,” Lieberman said. “He is also as we say in the U.S. a ’straight talker.’ “

I can’t think of any Committee trips where members have gone out of their way to illustrate the good character and leadership of another member, of  course, unless they were seeking a higher office.