McCain's Website Blows Away the Competition
By Bluey Posted in 2008 | Featured Stories — Comments (26) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Moments ago Sen. John McCain unveiled his new campaign website, JohnMcCain.com, featuring loads of information, lots of video and tools for bloggers to actively engage McCain supporters. The website is what you'd expect from the Republican frontrunner -- and puts his competitors' websites to shame.
I was one of four people to preview the new website this morning at McCain's Arlington, Va., headquarters. Joining me were CNN's Abbi Tatton, Townhall's Matt Lewis and Internet consultant David All. While Matt, David and I found some areas of the new site lacking, there was consensus among us that McCain had set the bar very high for his competition.
Read on ...
My favorite part of the new website is the prominent video component on the homepage. I have my doubts about whether the campaign can produce enough video to keep people coming back to the site. But I was assured by eCampaign Director Christian Ferry that there would be plenty of material to choose from.
McCain's site was described as a work in progress regarding social networking and Web 2.0 features, such as Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. Ferry said those components would be added at a later date. In the meantime, he said the eCampaign team is putting emphasis on the ability of users to create their own blogs and interact with McCain supporters using features built into the site. One part of the site is dubbed "McCainSpace."
I'm certain there will be plenty of criticism about the new site given bloggers' dislike for McCain. However, I view today's meeting as another positive development in the campaign's outreach to bloggers. Last week, senior McCain staff held a conference call with bloggers to discuss their strategy and listen to our feedback.
My major criticism is that McCain launched the new site on a Friday afternoon without any real reason to do so now other than a town hall meeting tomorrow in Iowa that will be streamed over the site. With a formal presidential announcement likely in the works, McCain probably would have been better off waiting to make a bigger splash. But I guess that's the luxury of a frontrunner.
« Dueling June Obama fundraising claims? — Comments (2) | Rudy Tutti, Fresh and Not that Fruity — Comments (117) »
McCain's Website Blows Away the Competition 26 Comments (0 topical, 26 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Since Biden's been mocked for this, it's worth a mention that there are currently nine different pictures of McCain on the front page alone. They might want to tone that down a bit.
Other than that, I'll have to look around a little more to see what's there.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
Is a McCainSpace anything like a Hilbert space or a postmodern feminist "safe space?" I just had to ask. If it's the former, it could be infinite and esoteric, if it's the latter it could be ridiculous and infantilizing. But let's give it a chance...
The black background is a bold design move, but the fact that he doesn't take advantage of it with the flag is really disappointing and depressing. You use a black background so that you can *highlight* the colors that matter to you. Apparently Senator McCain thinks the American flag is now rendered in the shades of "slate", "graphite" and "ghost."
You take the risk of using a black background because you want to make the other site elements JUMP OUT at the user, and they dropped the ball with the flag, bigtime.
More later...
Is absolutely horrible. If you pull your mouse across the screen in either direction, you can hear Senator McCain talk above himself in an indistinguishable cacophany of gibberish. Audio should *never* conflict with other audio on the same site.
They're basic, but well done. I like the little motifs that he uses and the basic font is non-serif but "sturdy" which reflects probably what the candidate thinks of himself. I'll have to look at the source and the CSS for further details.
The site also seems to have largely been built in Dreamweaver and is using a Microsoft .ASPX backend -- which I don't have any problem with, personally.
They could be better done with SoThink DHTML Menu if they don't have someone to code them specifically.
I'm pretty impressed, and with the b&w too, but disappointed that the flag was in b&w. I don't think it necessarily has to be the true, bold colors, but a tint of color through the grey would be a nice touch.
Black backgrounds are touchy and you have to be careful to make them not seem like a funeral requiem. They can be very powerful, though, because they foreground all the information in the "designed" elements of the screen in a very powerful way. I happen to like black backgrounds from a historical point of view, because most of the early monitors I worked on were that way, but if you're going to accentuate yourself with that very stark difference, I think you should at least put some tint and highlight into the American flag.
"Apparently Senator McCain thinks the American flag is now rendered in the shades of "slate", "graphite" and "ghost.""
I'm sure he did the graphic design and color scheme himself. ;)
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
I agree with Mycroft. It's my understandign that John is not the frontrunner and that most polls suggest Rudy. At this stage of the game it's a mute point however. In the end, the race will be between Rudy and Romney. John McCain is not worthy of trust. He prevented some good judges and caused that ridiculous, unconstitutional fund raising legislation. Don't get me started! He is constantly getting in the way of Republican values and beliefs, just to get his name out their and make headway with the Media and Independents. He will not be selected by Republicans. Not in this lifetime anyway.
Arnie
Not sure how I feel about the silver/grey/black color scheme. Its bold and looks sexy - but there is WAY too much of it. Add some color!
Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin
As I've said many times before, I have no favorite in this race. I've written both good things and bad things on just about everyone. And by the way, my reference to McCain as the frontrunner looks beyond the polls. In McCain's case, he is well ahead of Giuliani in terms of building a campaign operation and infrastructure, not to mention hiring a solid team to raise money.
The front runner is the one leading in the polls. The one leading in infrastructure and party money people is the establishment candidate, or the eager beaver. As Rove as pointed out, all these early starters are going to turn people off after awhile.
“They chose dishonor. They will have war.” - Winston Churchill
There are a few issues (like kowalski said above they were working on the audio one), but I am quite impressed. Especially since IIRC McCain doesn't even use email. I also would like to see a little more color, but the black & white is pretty neat. At least it is quite different than all the other sites.
Two thirds of the world is covered by water, the other third is covered by Champ Bailey
It's what I was thinking of using if I ran for office (i.e. primaried Ron Paul)...except with my blue eyes and blonde hair in color. :-)
If you are as easy on the eyes as you say, I can see why you would want to highlight your beautiful features in full color.
I hope that you didn't forget a platform though...
Haha...well, I don't exactly say HOW "ez on the eyez" that I am. That would be...conceited. I'm just saying that I know I'm more attractive than not. So...I guess I'm just saying that I'm above average, but I'll leave it to my fans to decide HOW above average. :-) Except that since I've said some inciteful and controversial things on here, you can never see a picture of me and this screenname and the comments attributed to it must remain anonymous. LOL :-)
Oh well...that's what you get when you run at the mouth. I'd have to work on being much more diplomatic if I did run against Ron Paul. He's got me just about worked up enough over enough issues that I'm becoming more and more tempted.
Oh well. But believe me...I'm an issues-driven individual. I would never run against him just to agrandize myself. I'd be hitting Paul on issues, and hitting him hard.
-------------------------------------
"As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this."
- George Mason
I agree with everyone else about the color issue - the same issue I had with his exploratory website - but other than that, it's pretty well done.
Websites seem like they are going to play more of a key role in this election, and lots of candidates have pretty good ones - Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and even Hillary's is good, to name a few.
--------
After the 2006 elections, al Qaeda released a statement saying they were happy Democrats won. That should tell you all you need to know.
The bar has been set for the others for no other reason than first to market.
The heavy black and white might be a bit much. However, it does add to an ambiance of seriousness and the seriousness of Senator McCain does come through the site's experience. You get a sense of leadership. But ultimately the 2008 winner is going to need to convey a since of "morning in America". Perhaps that site is best reserved for the general election when the independents that want to move through life blissfully have to be won over, rather than the Republican primary voters who understand the seriousness of the times.
I'm not a big McCain fan, I'm leaning heavily towards Rudy but McCain's site somehow made me feel comfortable with him when I watched his video. One thing I don't like is the "common sense conservatism" line. I hope we're not going to run on another prefixed form of conservatism.
“They chose dishonor. They will have war.” - Winston Churchill
Whoever made the website is a genius (even if I think McCain is a weenie).
Frontrunner my brass.