“Bob McDonnell” Liveblog

UPDATE: Follow-up with the McDonnell For Governor campaign:

The Attorney General did do the live blog from 3-4pm. There were some technical difficulties requiring him to use multiple addresses. Bob McDonnell was the one blogging, and we hope to do it much more in the future.

— Vincent Harris – Internet Director -  McDonnell for Governor

In further conversations with the campaign I’ve heard there were issues based on the frequency of comments being added and their CMS’s spam protection, something most sites like WordPress has built in (try commenting three times in the next 30 seconds, it won’t work).  This certainly could have been resolved in any number of other ways, but if no one in the room knew how to then this is the best fix.

Here’s hoping that the McDonnell campaign can fix this and other technical issues to continue running a campaign with effective social media and grassroots outreach.

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Currently in progress is Bob McDonnell’s liveblog concerning his decision to step down as AG come February 20th to campaign full time for Governor.  But is it Bob McDonnell?

Each comment by “Bob” links to one of THREE email addresses.  For example:

Comment #21 email address is linked to campaign@bobmcdonnell.com

Comment #23 email address is linked to mike@bobmcdonnell.com

Comment #27 email address is linked to bob@bobmcdonnell.com

This highlights two problems:

First, the Bob McDonnell blog defaults to linking to a commenter’s email address when there is no URL entered, opening commenters to spam bots and potential harassment from entities unfriendly to the McDonnell for Governor campaign.

Second, clearly Bob McDonnell is not liveblogging this on his own when the event was billed as such, pulling the pants down on transparency in online operations.

I know this is the first one out the gate, but this is a TERRIBLE way to start.

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About the author

Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney has blogged at J’s Notes since 2001, is the director of RedStormPAC providing online fundraising for Republican candidates in Virginia, and co-founder of K6 Consulting. He is a graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University and resides in Richmond, Virginia.