Democrat Debate in Nevada & How the Presidential Candidates Promote it Online

Last night a debate was held in Nevada for the Democrat Presidential Candidates.  Those remaining front runners that participated were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.  Dennis Kucinich  was blocked from participating in the debate by MSNBC and also lost his court battle to force MSNBC to allow him to participate.

Last week I did a quick rundown of how the Republicans promoted their performance in their debate in South Carolina.  It was all prompted by Republican Candidate Fred Thompson's Twittering.  So I feel it is only fair to do the same type of analysis of the Democrat candidates and their debate in Nevada last evening.

The one thing different with this review is that I had some time to do "Pre-Debate" screen shots of the site, and now "Post-Debate" screen shots of the debate.  I do have to point out one thing I found rather interesting, the Democrats have all spun this as their candidate is the "clear winner" of the debate last night, that was not that way with the Republicans and their debate in South Carolina.

While there's not a clear winner in who "won" the online promotion of the debate (to me I see it as a tie), there is a clear loser.  So lets take a look at what the Democrat Presidential Candidates have done to promote their appearance in the Democrat Presidential Debate in Nevada.

Democrat Presidential Candidates Promoting The Nevada Debate

John Edwards:

John Edwards' campaign was really on the ball with promoting Edwards' appearance in the debate, both before the debate aired and now afterwards.  On the homepage yesterday there were a number of links leading into news pieces or blog posts promoting Edwards' appearance.  This morning (1/16/08) there are new links into new news pieces and blog posts promoting Edwards' performance.

This morning blog for Edwards' Presidential Campaign has videos of his performance in last night's debate, and is using them out in his YouTube Channel.  There's also some nice discussions going on and different pieces of analysis of his performance in the Neveda Presidential debate.

Barack Obama:

Barack Obama's team has also been really on the ball with promoting Obama's appearance.  His homepage both before and now after the debate in Nevada, linked to blog posts promoting the debate and currently posts showing his performance in the debate.  Obama's campaign is utilizing their YouTube channel, just like Edwards has to promote Barack's performance in the debate last night.

Along with the videos in blog posts, they also had a Flickr photo stream of the pre-debate activities going on around the debate event.  Along with the videos and the Flickr photo stream/slide show, there is a small bit of analysis on his performance.

Hillary Clinton:

If there's a loser in online promotion of the debate, it's Hillary Clinton's campaign website.  This debate was basically treated as a "blip" on the screen by the folks running her campaign website.  There really wasn't any type of promotion of the Nevada Democrat Presidential Debate by her website save for a small bit that was on her blog.  There was nothing on her homepage yesterday and there's nothing on her homepage today (as of 11 a.m. when I looked again).

This morning on the Hillary Clinton Campaign Blog, there's nothing but text and commentary from her team, quoting various news outlets on things they have said about her performance in the debate.  Not one photo, not one video clip. 

I'm not all that surprised by this however, the Clinton camp is very controlling and very .... almost "fake" in its use of social media and it website to promote Hillary (more to come on that in her review).  Like the video she used on YouTube to announce her presidency run, it was very staged, and controlled, unlike Edwards who announcement felt a lot more "real".  So only having a few blog posts totally in "text" this morning pointing out their spin on her performance from quotes news outlets are saying seems to be exactly more of the "boring" approach they've continued to take.

I'm thankful that there was only 3 sites to review for this Democrat Presidential Debate in Nevada unlike the 6 I had to review for the Republican debate in South Carolina.  Seeing both Edwards and Obama's campaigns incorporating social media and website promotion of their appearance in the debate, just like Thompson and Giuliani priorly, was rather refreshing and great to see.  I like the fact that even though I couldn't watch this past debate, I can see pieces of their performance for myself, and not just take the word of rhetoric and spin from the news outlets on how they performed. 

Kudos to both Obama's and Edwards' campaign teams!

Interested in seeing the other reviews done by Search Marketing Gurus?  Check out the online marketing strategy reviews for Republicans John McCain, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson & Duncan Hunter, and Democrats Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich.  Also check out our review of the Republicans and their promotion of their debate in South Carolina.

Comments

[Billy The Blogging Poet]

I found it interesting that you rated the Edwards Internet Campaign so highly. Matthew Gross, who managed the '04 Howard Dean Internet Campaign is the man running the Edwards online efforts and a friend of mine.

And when the campaign is finally over he and I might have a beer together but he's working night and day until then.

[Billy The Blogging Poet]

PS. Please delete this second comment as I really don't want to spam your blog but since you're interested in online politics I thought you might enjoy http://www.yellowdog08.com It seems my dog has again decided she wants to be President and I don't have the heart to tell her no.

[Li Evans]

Hi Billy!

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

I only rated Edwards high here, for promoting the debate. Both Obama's and his campaign teams did a good job at it (although I have to say Thompson's efforts in the S.C. outweigh them all). Compared to Hillary who's effort, quite honestly sucked and just reaked of 'spinning', these two let their own words speak for themselves.

I still have to review Edwards site - which I will be doing next, so keep your eyes out for it in the next day or so.

And you know I couldn't tell my dog no either. Cute blog ... maybe I should review it too. ;)

~Li