That’s what Secret Service agents are calling the Illinois Democrat, in the time-honored tradition of giving “secret” code names to presidential candidates and other protected dignitaries. As is custom, the Obama moniker reflects something of the man himself (though he might prefer “progressive” or “independent”).

From the Washington Post. Sen. Clinton’s name, if you are wondering, is “ever-green”.

Still, according to a Secret Service spokesman, all code names are chosen by military officials, suggesting that they should not be examined too closely for deeper meaning.

I was just going through my Slashdot RSS feed and reading one iPhone story after another which made me think “Which of the candidates will be the first to get an iPhone?” Will anyone care?

Modern politicos are known for their heavy reliance on Blackberries (how many Karl Rove e-mails on his blackberry articles did we see in 2004?) but with the major “it factor” dealing with the iPhone I have to wonder if anyone will jump ship and adopt? We’ve heard about the President’s iPod playlists for several years now, so what can we expect from our candidates with the much hyped device? Also can you tell its a slow news day around these parts? Yes, it is!

This week was a relatively quiet one on the campaign trail. We are getting closer to the end of Q2 fundraising and I am starting to think candidates are getting tired already! But there was still moving and shaking and here is a recap of where we stand.

Clinton & Obama
Bill & Hillary Clinton divested a good deal of their stock portfolio this week releasing them from some potentially embarrassing conflict of interest charges for the election. Most people reported on it and then moved on, but not the Barack Obama campaign which prepared two memos detailing everything it could find in the hopes of hitting Clinton hard. Score one for Obama? Actually, not so much.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Washington Post looks into Ron Paul’s Internet popularity.

No one’s more surprised at this robust Web presence than Paul himself, a self-described “old-school,” “pen-and-paper guy” who’s serving his 10th congressional term and was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president in 1988.

“To tell you the truth, I hadn’t heard about this YouTube and all the other Internet sites until supporters started gathering in them,” confessed Paul, 71, who said that he’s raised about $100,000 after each of the three debates. Not bad considering that his campaign had less than $10,000 when his exploratory committee was formed in mid-February. “I tell you I’ve never raised money as efficiently as that, in all my years in Congress, and all I’m doing is speaking my mind.”

The article does look at the number one issue I always think of whenever I hear about Paul. That being, is this just a couple of people or a real movement.

“At first I was skeptical of his increasing online presence, thinking that it’s probably just a small cadre of dedicated Ron Paul fans,” said Matt Lewis, a blogger and director of operations at Townhall, a popular conservative site. “But if you think about it, the number one issue in the country today is Iraq. If you’re a conservative who supports the president’s war, you have nine candidates to choose from. But if you’re a conservative who believes that going into Iraq was a mistake, Ron Paul is the only game in town.”

I personally am still not convinced it’s a movement or if so that it is a very small one with a few savvy tech users and college students. Still it is interesting to follow.