Ambitious politicians don't need to be urged to run for higher office. But "draft" websites, which the netroots used to put mavericks like Wesley Clark and Jim Webb on the map, are becoming a standard political exercise. And that's probably a bad thing for Internet politics.

When Hillary Clinton announced she was running for president in an online video, it was a gesture towards the undeniable fact that candidates must make a minimal effort online, and must at the very least pay lip service to the netroots and the political blogosphere. As David Weinberger recently pointed out, although Hillary calls her campaign a conversation, the execution actually suggests "a TV-style interview answering safe questions with safer answers."

ZDNet tech blogger Donna Bogatin examines the online outreach of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) and the results are mixed. She labeled his announcement speech "staid" and failing to make him stand out from other candidates declaring online. Questioning Biden's ability to connect to potential voters, Bogatin writes, "Perhaps Jill [Biden] should give Joe lessons in networking" after photos of the senator's wife receive more attention than the senator himself.

Jeremy Bronson, reporting for MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, chronicled how candidates are combating the YouTube effect and trying to turn it around in their favor.

David All live-blogged a therapy session conference call between conservative bloggers and John McCain's campaign. "We’re looking to build relationships with all of you..." says McCain's senior advisor Terry Nelson. More at Beltway Blogroll.

AirCongress is webcasting daily snapshots from HotlineTV, a YouTube channel produced by Chuck Todd from the National Journal. Yesterday, Todd and senior editor John Mercurio discussed the chances that Rudy Giuliani will run for president. “There’s a track record here. He ran for the Senate in 2000. He got into the race for all intents and purposes and then got out,” said Mercurio. But, said Todd, “Rudy has been doing little things every day to look more and more like a candidate, and this is yet another little thing. … He’s doing as many things as Mitt Romney.” (via AirCongress)

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The Web on the Candidates

YouTube can be friend and enemy to a campaign, reports the Mercury News. The ubiquity of cell phone cameras and online video can make candidates extremely wary the YouTube effect, but they can also use it to their advantage. "One slip, and it's out so fast and goes so far. You're more exposed, but you can react faster, too, so it cuts both ways," Bruce Hildebrand says.

Jeff Jarvis recently launched Prezvid, a blog that covers presidential campaigns' use of video, and his video post about John McCain's use of video is spot on. Jarvis critiques McCain's over-produced videos -- rightly pointing out that his videos look like they're meant for the large screen, but they'll only be seen on computer screens -- and offers unsolicited advice and how to make better use the increasingly important medium.

The Web on the Candidates

Marianne Richmond at Blog the Campaign in 08 takes a look at the blog on Hillary Clinton's site and find something missing: Hillary.

Mitt Romney is trying his best to replicate Barack Obama's Facebook popularity. However, the University of Arizona's student paper, the Wildcat, points out: "Of the 36 posted photos of Romney's life and campaign, he seems to only interact with white people. (Note to the Romney 2008 campaign: These things can be both an asset and a liability.)"

The Web on the Candidates

Heather Greenfield of Technology Daily writes about the use of Google Adwords and Google-bombing in political campaigns. Despite search-engine operators' objections, bloggers from the left and right -- people like Chris Bowers of MyDD and John Hawkins of Right Wing News -- have used Google bombing to influence Google's search results.

TechPresident blogger David All has a poll up on his site asking readers, "Which website/service will have the most impact during the 2008 Presidential campaign?" So far, 18 out of 21 voters have chosen YouTube. Giuliani advisor Patrick Ruffini rightly suggests, however, that we don't yet know what the killer app in 2008 will be: "...the killer app of 2008 hasn’t been invented yet. It will be invented in a garage in August of this year, start gaining critical mass by the end of the fourth quarter, and be on the tip of everyone’s tongue by the middle of next year."

The Web on the Candidates

Todd Zeigler at the Bivings Report responds to Giuliani consultant Patrick Ruffini and techPresident's David All's discussion about what technologies will have the greatest impact in the 2008 election. He names Ning, a social network creation tool; Mozes, a text message broadcast app; Twitter, a status updater using IM, email, and text messaging; NowPublic, a user-generated news source; and MyBlogLog, a social networking service focused on blogs.

Videoblogger James Kotecki (who's now working with Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network) posts about John McCain's video strategy. Unlike Jeff Jarvis, who thinks that "McCain’s videos may be ready for prime time, but not for YouTube," Kotecki showers praise on McCain's short, highly-produced videos, which he says can double as both online videos and TV ads.

The Web on the Candidates

James Kotecki has been offering the presidential candidates free advice about using online video but he's disappointed in the one-way conversations most of them are conducting (read: they won't respond to him). John Edwards and Newt Gingrich wrote text responses to his videos analyzing their online campaigns; Joe Biden's campaign subscribed to Kotecki's videos. No other candidate has yet responded.

Jeff Jarvis responds to an article in the Politico by techPresident's Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej in which they compare the presidential candidates' use of video to the online videos of British MP David Cameron webcameron, in which the head of the Conservative party posts disarming and off-the-cuff videos that take place in his kitchen, on work trips, or anywhere else he happens to be. Compared to Cameron, Jarvis calls John McCain's videos "overproduced" and "overlong"; "Obama is spending too much time showing himself in front of big crowds and too little time just talking to us... Hillary is more casual but not candid. Yet they are all reveling in their ablity to make their own soundbites instead of being subject to the clipping whims of some network TV news editor."