McCain Campaign Uses Web Spider to Sting Obama [Johnnie don't surf]

wired.com ^ | Juky 15, 2008 | By Sarah Lai Stirland

[Jim Robinson]

The politicos' mutual stalking has reached unprecedented new levels this year: At least one side has started to spider the other's campaign website to track that campaign pages' precise word changes up to an hourly basis.

John McCain's campaign published a side-by-side comparison of Barack Obama's Iraq War policy web pages on Tuesday using a new automated online tracking service called Versionista.

The service, which launched two months ago, allows users to track and cache changes to specific web pages up to an hourly basis, depending on the level of filtering requested, says Peter Bray, its creator in Portland, Oregon.

"I'm an avid reader of blogs, so I thought this would be a good tool for campaigns and activists," he says. "This could be a good tool in their arsenal. "

Bray says that he got the idea from Wikipedia, which shows people the changes made to its entries. Versionista is a subscription service and allows people to track minute, detailed changes on websites.

[traderrob6]

“mutual stalking”

A bit hyperbolic.

[weegee]

At least one side has started to spider the other's campaign website to track that campaign pages' precise word changes up to an hourly basis. John McCain's campaign published a side-by-side comparison of Barack Obama's Iraq War policy web pages on Tuesday using a new automated online tracking service called Versionista.

Obama's being swiftboated. Inconvenient truths are coming out about his revisionist history...

[doodad]

That is funny. I wonder if the way back machine captures much on his site?

[SmithL]

How un-nuanced of McCain.

[LetsRok]

And McCain has never used the internet or owned a blackberry.

[DoughtyOne]

Talk about painful...

Who would want to watch either of these men’s sight that close? A masochist? LOL

[johnnycap]

Not bad for a guy who thinks a mouse is a small furry rodent. He must have learned these tricks in that prison camp Bill Clinton has been talking about lately.

[RichInOC]

Johnnie might not surf, but his campaign sure does.

[AU72]

Versonista sounds like a great QA tool.

[DoughtyOne]

I hadn’t heard of the rodent or prison camp issues. Where have I been?

[SoCalPol]

Good for McCain’s side.

Since either McCain or Obama can win, I would rather
have the candidate who has served in the military and
who has two sons serving in the military.
McCain may not be 100% conservative but at least
he is not a Marxist who will fill his adm. with like minded

[ILiveInLiberalHell]

And McCain has never used the internet or owned a blackberry.

That's actually kind of a plus in my book. Do I want the POTUS surfing the web? I'm sure Bill Clinton surfed the web for you-know-what.

[Ben Reyes]

The Obama campaign should follow standard software change versioning techniques to avoid confusion — when his position shift I would like to see revision designations such as Iraq Policy, Version 2.0; Oil Drilling Policy, Version 3.5; Second Amendment Position, Version 3.6; Abortion Stance, Version 4.0; etc. (full numbers are major flip-flops, fractions mere word updates or refinements). By adding versions to his positions, people can keep track of what he is talking about and questions can be posed more intelligently (’We are discussing Obama’s Position on Social Security, Version 11.0... so how does this differ from Version 5.6?’)

[ncalburt]

So , what is you point outside a cheap attack on McCain ?
Does the Prez have to have a blackberry ? Why would a Prez candidate take the chance having his files stolen destroyed ? Did Reagan suffer for not having a blackberry ?
Apparently not !

[rabscuttle385]

The Just Say No to Juan McCain Ping List. To join: FReepmail rabscuttle385 to subscribe or to unsubscribe from this ping list. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. We are exploring giving subscribers two different options for receiving pings: either to individual threads or to a single "digested" thread at the end of each calendar day. FReepmail rabscuttle385 if you are interested in receiving one or the other. Take care to check the "mccainlist", "mccaintruthfile", and "mccain" keyword search links for related threads, since we can not possibly ping you to every relevant article that is posted. To flag a relevant thread, please add the keywords "mccainlist" and "mccaintruthfile". Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the irrational rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of deeply confused conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless trolls who simply want to meet a new overlord.

[Doohickey]

I don’t need a techo-nerd for President, but then I not too keen on Luddites, either.

[calex59]

Ok, here is where you guys fall down. As much as I dislike McCain, and I do, you have to give him credit for hiring people who do know the internet. It isn't imperative that John know anything at all about the internet except how to hook up to it, be it dial up or DSL. What is important is that he has experts online who know what they are doing. Albert E. said that knowing how to access information was more important than knowing the information by memory. He didn't say it exactly in those terms but that is what he said. McCain knows how to access the internet by using people who know what they are doing.

Do you actually expect a presidential candidate to get online and hack web sites personally, or run spider programs personally? Get real. I will vote for this jerk against my will because he is the only jerk we have, but I refuse to malign him unnecessarily.

[dforest]

So , what is you point outside a cheap attack on McCain ? Does the Prez have to have a blackberry ? Why would a Prez candidate take the chance having his files stolen destroyed ? Did Reagan suffer for not having a blackberry ?

Chill out. Since when was the mention of a known fact an attack? This is a known fact. Get over it. McCain could make himself more savvy, you know. Couldn't hurt, could it?