The night after Obama’s election was a time for celebration for most people (although obviously not John McCain) with parties, drinking and general fun. However for one British journalist the night became a bit of a nightmare when he became an overnight star on YouTube.

Sitting in a corner on a laptop he is approached by a cameraman, who asks him a few questions about himself and the election. Adam Smith (the journalist) is obviously quite drunk, but talks fairly coherently about why he is there and who he works for (Birmingham Mail in England), but then it all went wrong. When asked about an article he is writing at the moment he says that he has copied and pasted it off the BBC website, and then goes on to resign from his job.

I came across the chart above thanks to betfair.com. The chart shows “the most accurate, up-to-the-minute prediction of who will win the U.S. Presidential election based on millions of wagers placed in the world’s largest betting exchange.” Neat stuff.

But look closer and you see a divergence on September 15th (a Monday). Something happened on this date that reversed both Obama’s downward trend and McCain’s comeback.

Find out what I theorize this to be and how YouTube has political blood on its hands.

Yahoo! has introduced several offerings designed to keep users in the know during this presidential election. The first called the Political Dashboard. The dashboard allows users to read campaign headlines, track polls, and even create their own scenarios.

It includes a red and blue Electoral College map and allows the user’s candidate’s poll performance to be tracked over time. On Election Day their homepage will offer snapshots of each candidate’s current status as each state’s polls close and its winner announced, and simply searching for “Obama” or “McCain” will direct users to shortcuts providing the latest news, online discussions, and poll results. Users can also use their cell phones and Yahoo! Mobile to access election coverage and information.

Technology is usually not mentioned in the hot-button issues in US politics. After foreign policy, the economy and personal jabs, there isn’t much time on camera to talk about what many of us care about most (or at least an awful lot). So, I dug deep into both candidates issue positions and came up with some info you should know before going to the polls.

Sarah Palin had at least 10 other secret email accounts aside from the one that was hacked into last month, according to an ITS technician who worked with a Palin aide to set them up. The McCain campaign admits this but, of course, put their own interesting spin on it.

“As a champion of government accountability and transparency, Governor Palin was exercising an abundance of caution to ensure that all state and personal business matters were being kept separate,” said spokesperson Meghan Stapleton. “Governor Palin is committed to serving with the highest regard toward ethics”

Keeping state and personal business separate? Then why did the hacked account contain family photos, personal correspondence and official state correspondence regarding pending legislation? That’s the complete opposite of separation.

Imagine a Secretary of Social Networks as part of the Presidents cabinet. If the impact of the internet on this election continues its current technological fashion, then the winning candidate might just have to add another chair at cabinet meetings as social networks are becoming critical to getting elected. The Pew Internet and American Life more »