Campaign tech: Different strokes

This election cycle candidates from across the political spectrum are going out of their way to demonstrate that they take the Internet seriously. But the presidential candidates may have just gone from serious to silly with the first ever presidential debate on Twitter. The "debate" is actually two surrogates from the campaign of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama throwing out their best 140-character-or-less sound-bites with former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox acting as moderator.

Following the debate has been difficult to near impossible for most. Peter Kafka said it was "like flipping between three different TV channels," while David LaGesse thought it was more like "watching a Ping-Pong match with contestants in different rooms."

If the two presidential campaigns noticed anything about Twitter it’s likely that the popular site lacks a revenue model — and that by simply engaging in a social network the campaign could garner free publicity. That might figure into the news from Silicon Alley Insider that McCain and Obama are dedicating less than 2% of their advertising budgets online. Could it be an indication that fewer people are basing their presidential preference on banner ads, or is it that more people are informing themselves with spam?

As unfortunate as that sounds, that’s exactly the situation the Obama campaign is actively combating. The recently launched Fight the Smears is the Obama campaign’s response to the misleading and inaccurate chain e-mails that have been seen by millions. But Fight the Smears breaks some cardinal rules of myth-busting, according to Farhad Manjoo, who second-guesses the wisdom of repeating false allegations in bold print on the main page. But the solution to Obama’s nuisance problem may lie with Christopher Beam, who created an amusing spam letter for Obama supporters to pass around.

Obama’s opponent has other computer problems to worry about. As previously reported, presumed Republican nominee John McCain is a self-confessed "illiterate" when it comes to computers. At the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City, Mark Soohoo of the McCain campaign, declared, "You don’t need to use a computer to know how it shapes the country." Now an increasing number of people are questioning if that’s true. Steve Garfield suggests McCain put the issue to rest by taking lessons from his 82 year-old mother, who can show him "how to use a computer, blogger, ‘The Google‘ and Twitter."

Computer illiteracy isn’t going to stop the McCain campaign from trying. The recently released Facebook app "pork invaders" is a crude appeal to gamers and seriously bucks the trend of incorporating learning into games. The simple flash-based game has the player maneuvering a campaign sign with the ability fire vetoes a fleet of Roger Water’s inflatable pigs, which happen to be dropping inverted crosses on what one can only assume is America herself. Game over.