Over the weekend, I received quite a bit of mail about this: I do not know how much of this is a response to my past actions in 2006, and / or my current actions srrounding John McCain. It appears that the search engine optimization techniques that I employed in those actions do actually fit the definition of a Googlebomb, so perhpas there is no connection at all. Also, the currnet "Googlebomb" I am employing against John McCain still ranks #9 on searches, so the impact of Google's new formula might be minimal. Then again, considering the amount of R & D Google has, if they are trying to change their formula to stop this specific type of action, eventually they will figure out how to do so.

What is eqaully certain, however, is that there will always be ways to manipulate search engine rankings, even if the days of the googlebomb are numbered. Given that Internet searches for candidate information remain the most common form of political action taken online, it will remain crucially important for campaigns and activists alike to continuously be developing new strategies that will allow them to take advantage of online searches. Rest assured that I will do whatever I can to constantly be developing new techniques in this area myself.

So, long story short, I am going to look into this, and into developing a more comprehensive search optimization strategy before going forward with the next phase of the John McCain googlebomb campaign. This campaign does not end here. If anything, this new development will simply result in a more sophisticated and intelligent strategy. and yes, BlogPac will continue to be essential to these efforts.

Anyway, just thought I needed to make a public statement about this, considering the large maount of queries I was receiving.

Six days ago, I asked you to assist with a Googlebomb campaign targeted exclusively at Arizona Senator John McCain. I am pleased to report that in a very short period of time, this campaign is going quite well.

• The targeted article from CBS News, John McCain, is now 11th on Google searches for John McCain. Six days ago it was not in the top 100.
• When it comes to just searches for McCain, the targeted article is also currently 11th on Google.
• Similar articles are starting to appear on Google searches for John McCain. An MSNBC article entitled McCain calls for substantial, sustained surge is #15 and, amazingly, the MyDD tag for John McCain is #16.

If all goes well, at this time next week, the CBS article on McCain will be so embedded in the Google rankings that we can target a new article on McCain, and push that one high on Google searches. Eventually, we could dominate the top twenty searches on McCain, and the truth on McCain will spread around the country, Here is how you can participate in the John McCain Googlebomb:

• 1. Until we choose a new article, whenever you use the words McCain, John McCain, Senator John McCain, McCain 2008, or any other popular search term on McCain anywhere on the Internet, embed the words with a hyperlink to the currently targeted article.
  
• 2. If you have a blog or a website, place an embedded hyperlink to the currently targeted article into the templates of your blog. Instructions on how to do this, and why it is important, can be found here. This will multiply the impact of any Googlebomb on McCain several hundred times. This process is also helped if people on community websites place the appropriate embeded McCain hyperlink in the signature line of their user interface.

Also, be on the lookout for new target articles we can use in the McCain Googlebomb. Strong candidates for target articles have as many of the following attributes as possible:

• 1. The article reflects John McCain in a negative way, such as describing a John McCain scandal, John McCain supporting Bush, John McCain sucking up to the right wing, John McCain supporting escalation, John McCain flip-flopping, etc.
• 2. It is a news article, not an op-ed or column.
• 3. It is from a well-known, mainstream news source, rather than a campaign site or partisan media source.
• 4. It contains the word "McCain" in the headline of the article.
• 5. It is already in the Google top 100 on searches for McCain, and will not be removed from the website it is on for some time.

You should be pleased to learn that our efforts to engage in search engine optimization for John McCain are coming at a time when McCain is already starting to fade. Consider the following:

• McCain is starting to fade badly in the conservative blogosphere, with only 4% support in the latest GOP bloggers poll.
• McCain's support among New Hampshire independents has dropped from 49% to 29%, according to American Research Group polling, largely because of his support for escalation.
• McCain finished in a distant fourth place in an Arizona Republican Party straw poll this week.
• MoveOn.org will soon air anti-escalation ads in New Hampshire and Iowa that point out escalation was McCain's idea all along.

No one is so big, so loved by the establishment media and the punditry nexus that s/he can't be taken down several pegs by the grassroots and netroots. This is especially true of McCain, champion of Sunday talk shows, because the Republican netroots and grassroots are fairly anti-McCain themselves, even though he has tried to suck up to them. Maybe I am targeting McCain above all others just because I hate the politics of unity and purpose, and would rather see Washington, D.C. overrun with more partisan polarizers. One thing is for sure, at this point I would love to see a McCain / Lieberman "escalation unity" ticket, awash in corporate money. Not only would such a ticket show the hand of the corporate and pundit class once and for all, at this rate I am growing extremely confident that such a war mongering, escalation such a ticket could be easily crushed as a nice bit of revenge for Connecticut 2006. After all, the 2008 Republican nominee for president won't be Alan Schlessinger.

Cross-posted on Dailykos--Chris

If you are anything like me, you are sick and tired of the national image of John McCain as some sort of independent, principled, Republican moderate. Examples of McCain's departure from the Bush administration's agenda are truly few and far between. Despite reports to the contrary, he has consistently supported and facilitated the most egregiously radical aspects of that agenda. Further, in an attempt to improve his prospects for the Republican nomination in 2008, he has spent much of the last three years sucking up to the theocon wing of the Republican Party that he once decried. Most famously, this included retracting comments he made about Jerry Falwell and then speaking at Falwell's Liberty University. Pandering to extremists you once denounced in order to improve your electoral prospects hardly sounds "principled" to me.

What especially irks me about McCain's pure as the driven snow national image is how the Washington pundit elites have continued to help manufacture it. McCain is the most frequent guest on Sunday morning talk shows, whose hosts clearly have done a terrible job of exposing the truth about him. We simply can't trust the gatekeepers of our conventional wisdom to treat John McCain with any skepticism whatsoever. I am sure we will see much of the same lapdog treatment from the pundit elite when it comes to the McCain doctrine, otherwise known as escalation in Iraq. Already, pundits are bending over backward to label this idea serious, and the people who support it as principled.

Well, I say enough is enough. The line on McCain's national image will be drawn here, and drawn now. Today, I am proposing a long-term, anti-McCain googlebomb project similar to the Googlebomb the Elections campaign I founded in 2006. Read the extended entry for details.