Cyrus Farivar

As the Boston Globe reported:

The poll numbers may be inconclusive, but John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as running mate gave him one measurable boost: in web traffic. According to Nielsen Online, traffic to McCain’s campaign website increased 242 percent during the week he named Palin to the GOP ticket. On the week ending August 31, McCain’s site drew nearly 1.8 million unique visitors, compared to 524,000 the week before.

Obama’s web traffic still vastly outpaced McCain’s that week, boosted by the Democratic National Convention. For the week ending August 31, Obama’s site drew about 3.4 million viewers, compared to 2.6 million the week before.

But let’s take things one step at a time. Online ads, I’d guess, largely are preaching to the choir. Pew’s most recent data on Internet users shows that those of us online skew toward the better educated, wealthier and younger. And guess what? Those groups tend to skew Democrat, and especially toward Obama.

Further, I’m not convinced that online traffic actually measures a whole lot on the political front. Again, I’m going to guess that most people visiting Obama’s site agree with him and are using the site to donate (probably repeatedly) to the campaign, to check out local meetup events or, my favorite, to download Obama ringtones. (No joke.)

Now, another item that’s gotten a lot of attention as of late is online customized T-shirt sites like Zazzle and Café Press. Just two weeks ago, NPR’s “On the Media” interviewed Fred Durham, the founder of Café Press.

Durham stated what we’d all suspected (that there are more Obama shirts than McCain), and said that the rally around Obama bodes well for him. Then he argued that it’s more representative than you might think:

BOB GARFIELD: Now, does this augur poorly for John McCain or is this just sort of a demographic quirk, Obama’s audience overlapping with the message t-shirt-wearing audience?

FRED DURHAM: If this was our first election, I may think maybe it’s a demographic issue. This is our — the third election we’ve been through. George Bush merchandise was very hot during the previous election. So unless George Bush skewed young and hip, which I don’t think was the case, then that argument doesn’t take hold.

When we still had Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee, t-shirt sales were much closer to neck and neck. Every time one of the alternative Republican voices dropped off, the sale didn’t go to McCain, but Obama’s grew by just about the exact amount.

The trends we’ve seen make kind of the t-shirt polls a very telling, perhaps even better than standard poll, view of what’s really happening and where the elections are headed.

BOB GARFIELD: Hm, I’ve just got to challenge you on that. Are you serious or just being glib when you say “better than a traditional poll”?

FRED DURHAM: Just like product research, asking people what they think of products, is a poor predictor of what people are actually going to buy, what we find with t-shirts, these aren’t your average people at home. These are the enthusiasts who are definitely going to show up and pull the pull lever. The election’s not about the mood of the nation. It’s about those who actually get out and vote.

Eh, I don’t buy Durham’s argument. I don’t think that those who were voting Huckabee and buying T-shirts were necessarily going to Obama, but rather that as the election progressed, interest in him grew. Further, I would also guess that Obama sales in 2008 are far outpacing Bush sales in 2004.

Still, though, there is one element that gives me hope about Obama’s candidacy from a tech angle, and that’s the notion that some of Obama’s cellphone-only supporters are being undercounted in national polling.

Last year, Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, noted this phenomenon:

Twenty years ago the survey research profession — having grown comfortable with telephone interviewing as an alternative to personal interviewing for conducting surveys — worried mostly about the roughly 7% of U.S. households that could not be interviewed because they had no telephone. Today our concern is somewhat different, and potentially more serious. According to government statistics released last month, nearly 13% of U.S. households (12.8%) cannot now be reached by the typical telephone survey because they have only a cell phone and no landline telephone.

If people who can only be reached by cell phone were just like those with landlines, their absence from surveys would not create a problem for polling. But cell-only adults are very different. The National Health Interview Survey found them to be much younger, more likely to be African American or Hispanic, less likely to be married, and less likely to be a homeowner than adults with landline telephones. These demographic characteristics are correlated with a wide range of social and political behaviors.

A more updated version from July 2008 found that among cellphone-only voters, Obama is beating McCain by 61 to 32, and that when the cell and standard land-line samples were combined, Obama was up 48 to 40. But then again, Pew’s own data has a smaller sample size for the cellphone voters. (I’ve got a query in to Pew to ask about the methodology of this study.) So maybe there’s hope after all.

But there were also a few troubling episodes on the technological front, with text messages and e-mails being used as a way to perpetuate false information.

Wired reported late last night that voters in Florida and New Mexico received a fake text message from 505-507-6041 that says things like: “Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow,” or “Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday.”

The AP adds that there have been reports of similar “robo-calls” and fake texts in Missouri and that the Missouri secretary of state and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been notified. I’m glad that this wasn’t widespread enough to have made a difference, but it’s still a troubling development.

But that’s not all. Thousands of students at George Mason University received an e-mail spoofed to look like it was from Provost Peter N. Stearns saying that “election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.” Apparently the FBI is on the case.

And finally, while the outcome of the election was by a pretty overwhelming margin, there were still problems with electronic voting in numerous states, although not enough to have any sort of real impact.

Still,  we as a country really need to have a single standard for federal elections, get rid of these awful e-voting machines, and streamline this whole process so we don’t have to deal with this kind of crap anymore.

On a more personal and professional note, I share with you the news that this is my last post in Machinist, which is going on hiatus beginning tomorrow.

I thank all of you for reading and for your thoughtful and critical comments. If you’d like to follow me and/or any of my other work on public radio or elsewhere, you can do so on my blog: cyrusfarivar.com (where I’ll be announcing the result of our little trial voter-verified election), and/or you can email me at cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.

Cheers!

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works — nor when I’m going to get it in my house. Man, and I was just getting used to Skype video chat. Still, scope out the video below.

This is without a doubt the best Obama song that I’ve seen so far. It’s got catchy lyrics — Viva Obama! — snappy outfits, a line about healthcare, and that female violin player? Muy caliente!

2) Extra Golden – Obama

This half Kenyan band (just like Obama!) rock out on this chillaxed benga track. Great guitar riffs.

3) Cocoa Tea – Barack Obama

Jamaican reggae star Coco Tea recorded this tune earlier this year, earning a small writeup in the Jamaica Observer at the time.

As he told the newspaper:

“If you notice, Obama is getting a lot of support from the young people, and when the younger generation begin to call for change, it usually comes, as they and the future, and Obama’s future is in their hands. Support for Obama is also coming from other quarters including the Kennedy family, as he is seen as the man with a plan, therefore I was guided by Jah on this one.”

How can you argue with Jah?

4) Docta Musica WashiWara – Barack Obama

This tune comes to us from Cameroon, and if you believe what the Docta says on his Web site: “The video has quickly becomed a big hit on Youtube.” Indeed.

5) crbballgal – BARACK THE VOTE!

How can I deny two fly girls, an ’80s-style synth, and rapping in front of a bathroom mirror? Well done, ladies.

6) Mighty Sparrow – Barack the Magnificent

Mighty Sparrow is the world’s leading calypso singer, hailing from the island of Grenada. Cop a read on the lyrics over here — I’m sure this is the first time that the phrase “Foreign Relations Committee” has worked its way into a calypso song.

7) Obama Song Spanish Reggaeton

I’m not sure who wrote this song, but nothing makes me want to sing “Si se puede!” louder than this reggaeton tune.

Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream

This song debuted just two days ago at a rally in Cleveland, so if you drop this joint at your fiesta, you’ll definitely be about 75 percent as cool as the Boss himself.

9) Barackapella – Yes We Can

Although college a capella may get mocked on Stuff White People Like, this cover of the famed will.i.am song is perfectly pulled off by Barackapella, a group from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. (Also, don’t forget the parody, by john.he.is!)

10) Guru – Obama dance mix

I really, really hope that this is the first song that the Obamas dance to at the inagural ball. Or at least at the party in Chicago tonight.