US Presidential Hopefuls Launch MySpace Profiles

Mar 19, 07:20 PM

Current Headlines: Prospective US voters anxious to learn John McCain's television show or to be friends with Barack Obama now have a chance.

The popular social networking site MySpace.com launched on Sunday a section dedicated to the 2008 presidential election.

Called the Impact Channel, it is the latest attempt by an Internet company to educate voters by serving as an information hub for political candidates and the public.

By clicking onto impact.myspace.com, the site's mostly young users can link to the personal pages or "profiles" of 10 presidential hopefuls.

Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joseph Biden, and Dennis Kucinich were among five Democrats who have set up MySpace profiles. Republicans McCain, Rudolph Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, the Texas congressman, have also set up MySpace pages.

MySpace users will also be able to read the candidates' blogs, look at their photos and video and, if they choose, link their favorite candidates to their friends list or put a candidate's ad onto their own pages.

In the coming weeks, the site will provide voter registration tools and a payment function where users can make campaign contributions.

"As the country's most trafficked website, MySpace will play a powerful role in the upcoming election," Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's chief executive said in a statement.

"Our digital candidate banners will be the yard signs of the 21st Century and our political viral videos and vlogs are the campaign ads of the future," he said.

Some candidates, taking advantage of the Internet's potential to reach millions of voters, have already set up their own campaign websites and profiles on other social networking websites, including Facebook and Friendster.

Clinton announced her long-anticipated candidacy for president on her website; she and Edwards have separately participated in "Webchats" and McCain is asking visitors to his website to pick winners in the NCAA tournament and compare their teams to his favorites.

Earlier this month, the online video site YouTube launched a new section that allows candidates to feature their own video "channels" at no cost.

Agencies

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