Smart Computing-Editorial

General Computing


February 2000• Vol.11 Issue 2 Page(s) 30-31 in print issue
Politically Connect Your Guide To Following Politics & The Election Online

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While elections haven’t quite reached the stage of playing back prerecorded WAV audio files to constituents, the Internet is definitely changing the way that politicians run for office. Campaign Web sites have become as indispensable as a stack of handy sound bites. Political action committees and special interest groups are finding new ways to present and forward causes, and the number of sites offering political news and commentary has grown considerably since the last major election. What’s a voter to do?

Using the Internet, voters are now in a position to be better informed on the candidates and issues than at any time in history. Understanding how the Internet is being used in the political process and what resources are available are the two keys to getting the most for your political click.

A Page For Me

The Internet is about information. “Any serious organization cannot afford to ignore the Internet’s potential to disseminate information,” says Bill Moeller, Political Director of Campaign for Working Families (http://www.cwfpac.com/). “As a political action committee, CWF has utilized our Web site to convey our message: state who we are, what we do, and what positions we take.”

It’s also a cheap way to reach the masses. “Our Web site is hands-down our biggest asset,” says Mike Panetta, Executive Director of the Generation X political action committee, X-PAC (http://www.freespeech.org/x-pac). “The amount of people we reach for the money we spend on it is staggering.”

Message and money—they have been the bread and butter of the political machine for as long as it has been running, and the Internet embraces them with gusto. Take the 2000 presidential election. At the time of this writing, there were nine major candidates running for the office. All nine have Web sites, which serve as spin-central for their campaigns. Part infomercial and part info-warehouse, these sites offer candidate bios; issue positions; good press; a campaign calendar; and the obligatory splashes of red, white, and blue. Central to the design of each are buttons labeled Contribute and Volunteer.

While none of the sites feature visitor counters, which deprives us of the ability to keep a running Internet poll, they all have design differences that set them apart from each other.

· Bauer, Gary (http://www.bauer2k.com/). No mincing of words here: Bauer’s page is functional and flash-free.

· Bradley, Bill (http://www.billbradley.com/). A nice site packed with Bradley clips and featuring a store, a Spanish version, state-by-state looks at the campaign, and voter registration forms.

· Buchanan, Patrick (http://www.gopatgo2000.org/). Kind of like visiting a five-alarm fire: big, bold, and not afraid to step on a few toes.

· Bush, George W. (http://www.georgewbush.com/). Amongst the issues and speeches is a Youth Zone, where we learn that running for president is a lot like playing baseball.

· Forbes, Steve (http://www.forbes2000.com/). Very nice site, with lots of bells, whistles, scripts, and ton of pages. Befitting a publisher.

· Gore, Al (http://www.algore2000.com/). Gore’s site offers interactive town halls, voter registration forms, and something called the Volunteer Source Code Project, where you can help him build his Web site.

· Hatch, Orrin (http://www.orrinhatch.org/). Special features at Hatch’s site include Hatch Toons and contact information for some of the biggest newspapers in the country.

· Keyes, Alan (http://www.keyes2000.org/). Another page in the manner of Gary Bauer’s: simple and effective, with weekly updates.

· McCain, John (http://www.mccain2000.com/). Very nice site with special sections for veterans and college students and even the occasional welcome splash of dry humor (Top-10 areas for Bush campaigners to visit, with the number one being Contributions).

Competing For Votes

Presidential candidates aren’t the only ones competing for your attention and ultimately your votes. Lest we forget, there are also a lot of congressional, governor, and local campaigns out there.

Congressional. Both the U.S. Senate (http://www.senate.gov/) and House Of Representatives (http://www.house.gov/) have pages that are well stocked with congressional tidbits. Get historical information on each body, track bills, and get past voting records of Congressmen and Women. Each has a great directory, with contact information on members. Need to get in touch with your Representative or Senator or just visit their individual Web sites? These are the places to go.

We couldn’t mention Congress without touching on the White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/). Get the administration’s spin on issues, as well as White House history, information on the federal government, and a White House For Kids section. (Note: Ensure the extension in the Web address you type is .gov and not .com; erroneously visiting http://www.whitehouse.com/ will take you to a pornography site.)

Governors. Both the Democratic Governors’ Association (http://www.democraticgovernors.org/dga) and the Republican Governors Association (http://www.rga.org/) provide cheerleading services for its member governors. If you know what party to which your governor belongs, stop in at the appropriate site for news, state of the state addresses, initiatives, and more.

Parties. To use the Bush politics-as-baseball metaphor, think of each party as a team and the candidates as players. Parties exist to create broad platforms of issues (abortion, tax issues, education, and more) and ruthlessly promote its members, right down to the local level. The three primary parties, the Republican National Committee (http://www.rnc.org/), the Democratic National Committee (http://www.democrats.org/), and the Reform Party (http://www.reformparty.org/) all have Web sites where they make their positions very clear. These sites also feature news, calendars, and programs for special interest groups that call their camp home.

Let’s not forget groups like the Green, Communist, Constitution, and Natural Law parties. There are many, many political parties in the United States; you can find a comprehensive list by visiting the Politics1 site at http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm

Making Informed Decisions

Let’s face it; while there is a tremendous amount of information coming from candidates and parties, it’s not exactly balanced. To make a truly informed decision on a candidate or issue, you’re going to have to dig a little bit deeper.

News Organizations. Media growth on the Internet has exploded since the last major election, and a detailed list of sources for political headlines, news, and commentary would far exceed the space we have here. Still some sites rise to the top in terms of consistent excellence. These include:

· CNN/AllPolitics (http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS)

· OnPolitics.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics)—from The Washington Post

· The New York Times: Politics (http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/national/index-politics.html)

· ABCNEWS.com: Politics Index (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics)

· USA TODAY: Politics (http://www.usatoday.com/elect/elect96.htm)

· The Political Insider (http://www.politicalinsider.com/)—includes a This Day In Political History section.

· Roll Call Online (http://www.rollcall.com/)—the newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955

A few more specialized media resources include:

· Yahoo! Broadcast (http://www.broadcast.com/news/politics). Formerly Broadcast.com, the political section at this site includes a quirky collection of media, from Clinton weekly radio addresses and daily State Department briefings to political audio books and shows.

· C-SPAN (http://www.c-span.org/). Voyeuring Congress for 20 years. Here you’ll find audio and video clips from C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 and programming guides; you can even watch the network online.

· Political Oddsmaker (http://www.campaignline.com/odds). From the publication Campaigns And Elections (and claiming a 98% success rate), the latest odds on many political races.

Issues. Issues drive campaigns, but understanding the various aspects of them can be difficult. Many PACs (political action committees) exist to promote issues and causes, and the following Web sites offer easy ways to find both groups and issues you’re interested in learning more about.

· Policy.com (http://www.policy.com/community/advoc.html). This site links to groups such as the Christian Coalition and Common Cause.

With PoliticalInformation.com, you can search for news and information on 5,000 political and policy sites.

· Political Advocacy Groups (http://reinert.creighton.edu/advocacy). A fantastic list maintained by Creighton University. View groups by subject and alphabetical listing.

· PoliticalInformation.com (http://www.politicalinformation.com/links/Issues/). Links to groups by subject, as well as a special issues section.

· YouDebate.com (http://www.youdebate.com/). A great site that looks at current issues, such as gun control, presidential contenders, social security, and more. YouDebate .com gives numerous pro and con arguments for each debate without taking sides. You may also search through debates by keywords and vote on each.

Federal Election Commission (FEC). Interested in the money aspect of a campaign? Parties, candidates, and Political Action Committees (PACs) must file contribution and financial reports with the Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov/), which you can search online. They also offer a citizen’s guide to contributions and the law, a must-read before sending out your contribution check.

Directories. If you’re looking for an all-in-one site on political information, there are several directories that offer everything from news and links to research tools and calendars of events.

· Politics1 (http://www.politics1.com/). Mentioned earlier for its fabulous list of political parties, Politics1 also offers tons of links and a great section on campaign buttons and collectibles.

· CapWeb (http://www.capweb.net/classic). This site’s motto is “The Internet Guide To The U.S. Congress.” The emphasis here is on House and Senate resources.

· PoliticalInformation.com (http://www.politicalinformation.com/). Also mentioned earlier for its issues and political groups sections, the central gem in this site is a search engine that can look for keywords on 5,000 different politics and policy Web sites.

· Policy.com (http://www.policy.com/). We mentioned Policy.com earlier with regard to its advocacy groups section, however the site offers a ton of other information and links on briefings, think tanks, and more.

· Project Vote Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org/). Lists itself as “Tracking the Performance of Over 13,000 Political Leaders.” Project Vote Smart is not kidding around; the site features candidate issue positions, voting records, performance evaluations, and more for thousands of candidates.

The Lighter Side

Politics is serious work and perfect fodder for satirists. Here are just a few of the sites that feel your pain and try helping you through it.

· LittleGeorgeBush.com (http://littlegeorgebush.com/). A great site itself, LittleGeorgeBush.com also offers a links page to virtually every other Bush parody site out there, from gwbush.com (the original and classic) to BushLite.

· Bore200.com (http://www.albore.com/). Not to be outdone, Bore2000 runs with the Gore stereotype, offering jokes and Top-10 lists, a Clown Hall, and Bulletin Bored.

· The Capitol Steps Home Page (http://www.capsteps.com/). This site is made up of current and former congressional staffers; the Capitol Steps have made political humor an art form.

by Rich Gray

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