MySpace Enters Politics

By Bill Lipton

MySpace networking website has gone political. On March 18, they launched an Internet base for the possible 2008 Presidential Candidates where, in typical MySpace tradition, each can accumulate "friends" or convey their message to this specific target audience � those too young to remember Vietnam, or carry its emotional divisiveness.

As of 4:30 PM launch Sunday � John McCain friends out numbered Hillary�s two to one; but by weeks end, Hillary had reversed the ratio and become the leader among the underdogs. Who are the top dogs?

John Edwards began with twenty times as many "pals" as McCain; but eased down to only a 7 to 1 lead. Edwards has a few things on his mind, and his blogs are up and speaking.

Pushing the top, Barack Obama trails Edwards after a 15 to 1 lead over McCain, he seemed to have topped and slipped to a mere 6 to 1 lead.

Both Edwards and Obama are young and unapologetic in their end-the-war positions. Is it any doubt why those who would be the cannon fodder are behind them?

In this race, McCain serves as our only pro-war yardstick; and Hillary has become the "I voted for it, before I thought about voting against it" representative. The rest of the mixed position pack follows in no particular order:

Joe Bidden was roughly neck and neck with McCain; but McCain picked up and took a 2 to 1 lead.

Mitt Romney was 20 percent ahead of Hillary; which bode ill for the mis-spoken, conflicted, former first lady until she grabbed the lead. Romney is now neck and neck with McCain.

As for Rudi Giuliani � idiot has shown he doesn't get the idea; his MySpace page was, and is, set to "private" so his numbers are secrete to any who do not declare themself his "friend". Do I hear Echos of the Bush Whitehouse? In this pre-popularity audition, this clown is a waste of bandwidth.

Dunkin Hunter � who the hell is he � has the most attractive friends; but, a beautiful as they may be, he couldn�t reach Hillary's initial showing, and now McCain has a 3 to 1 lead. On Sunday, Chris Dodd was a no show, a week later he is dead last behind Hunter � basically a non-starter..

Ron Paul � sounds like a stripper, huckster, or some such � and started with 54 people on his list; now he has added 1300 more. This bird looks like another non-starter, but he�s more than half way to McCain.

Dennis Kucinich � another strange name with absolutely nobody as friends on Sunday, has passed 1250. At first, it seemed not even his own family wants to be associated with him. Maybe they just had the computers off.

Finally we have Bill Richardson. He wasn�t there Sunday, but if his numbers keep growing at the current rate, by next Sunday he�ll pass McCain. Looks like the people of New Mexico might like their frugal governor � we may want to keep an eye on him.

The past few weeks have seen a stock market blip reflect nervousness over sub-prime mortgages. The 2008 election will reflect how related, underlying, fears play out. America is a debt burdened nation, where exorbitant fees and usurious rates are being charged to those who, in earlier, more conservative, times would never have been offered a card, much less be told they are "pre-approved."

American priorities, the priorities of those who wish to lead our nation, are important. Maybe MySpace will give us the opportunity to learn if the candidates understand just how important economic security is, and how hemorrhaging costs � in terms of manpower and funds � in Iraq can affect that old saw: "it�s the economy stupid."

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