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Twitter has been buzzing about the November 3 elections.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –The conversation on Twitter Tuesday is, unsurprisingly, about the election. The trending topic list on Twitter, that reflects what words or phrases are being used the most, show "Election Day," "#VoteNoOn1," "Vote" and "Maine" taking the top spots.

There are plenty of other hashtags being used to keep track of conversations and topics surrounding the election. One hashtag gaining traction in New Jersey primarily is "#Voterfraud." This is being used to track irregularities in the polls. National youth organizations including Rock the Vote, Campus Progress, the Energy Action Coalition, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the United States Student Association, are coming together Tuesday on Twitter. Using the hashtag "#1yrlater," the organizations and their followers are tweeting about issues important to them and how the Obama administration is doing one year later.

Of course, the candidates are also tweeting. Most tweets are focused on drumming up the vote. Mike Bloomberg's Twitter account notified followers on Monday that he will personally be sending out tweets Election Day. In New Jersey, Jon Corzine and Chris Christie have been active tweeters throughout the election as well, known for taking shots at each other in 140 characters. (To follow all the candidates on Twitter, follow the @CNNPolitics Twitter List).

Crimson Hexagon ran an analysis of the conversation occurring on Twitter, as well as on blog posts and forum threads about the House race in New York's 23rd congressional. The company, which monitors the conversation occurring online, looked at at 31,000 tweets, blogs and forums from October 22 to November 2 and found that the most animated and vocal conversation came from supporters of Hoffman and if the online community did discuss Scozzafva, it was negative. Crimson Hexagon Executive Melyssa Plunkett-Gomez says that her analysis shows that "the liberal bloggers did not use this race as their platform."

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The Democratic National Committee is taking fresh aim at Sarah Palin.

(CNN) - The Democratic National Committee is taking fresh aim at Sarah Palin, encouraging supporters to attack the former Alaska governor on Facebook in order to "debunk her lies."

In an e-mail to supporters, and on a new Web site, the DNC asks supporters to call out Palin when she uses Facebook to transmit what the committee says are falsehoods.

"The more we push back with the truth, the more Sarah Palin and others like her will have to think twice before they promote lies, and the less they'll be able to derail progress," DNC executive director Jen O'Malley Dillon wrote in the e-email.

Palin is the latest high-profile Republican to be targeted by the DNC in a campaign they've labeled "call 'em out." Other Republicans in the DNC's cross-hairs have included House Minority Leader John Boehner, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has joined LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sarah Palin has placed her resume on LinkedIn.

Known as the “Facebook for professionals,” LinkedIn is a social media site that displays more than 50 million people’s resumes and allows for virtual business networking for those interested in keeping in touch or finding a job. Palin’s resume includes her position as “Vice Presidential Candidate” for the 2008 election and goes back to 1992 where she was the Council Member for the Wasilla City Council.

LinkedIn lists years of employment as well; her profile says Palin was the governor of the State of Alaska for two years and seven months.

Palin also notes that she is interested in “Job inquiries, expertise requests, business deals, reference requests, and getting back in touch.”

Her 2008 running mate John McCain joined LinkedIn during the campaign to participate in “LinkedIn Answers,” a part of the site where people can ask questions and get answers from professionals. McCain asked, “What is the biggest challenge America faces?”

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The NRCC tweet before it was removed.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The National Republican Congressional Committee has removed a tweet Tuesday that linked to a video comparing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Adolf Hitler.

The tweet, sent out Tuesday morning on their official Twitter account, read: "Funny Video: Moonbattery: Hitler Reacts to ObamaCare Maneuvers http://bit.ly/2mOvZ7 #Pelosi". It comes the same day the NRCC released a petition on their site to "Fire Nancy Pelosi."

The tweet immediately drew strong criticism from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "House Republicans have gone way too far. The NRCC's despicable promotion of a video comparing Speaker Pelosi's effort to reform health insurance in America to Adolf Hitler's extermination of millions is a shocking new low that must be condemned," said DCCC spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. "Republican Leader John Boehner should order NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions to immediately remove this vile Tweet and apologize."

NRCC spokesman John Randall said Tuesday the group had made a mistake. "We obviously made an error in linking to this video and it has been taken down," said Randall.

This tweet comes on the heels of a controversial NRCC statement last week that called on Gen. Stanley McChrystal to "put [Pelosi] in her place" on the topic of Afghanistan.

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The RNC relaunched GOP.com Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee debuted its newly redesigned online portal GOP.com Tuesday - but not without a few technical headaches, including some that left the site completely unavailable for parts of the day.

“Due to a high volume of web traffic, our new website experienced a few technical difficulties, but we are working out the glitches to bring it back to full working order,” the RNC's Director of Media Affairs LeRoy Coleman said in an e-mail to CNN.

The new version of GOP.com, which prominently features images of women and ethnic and racial minorities, plugs the party's involvement in social networking sites. A section on the homepage allows users to see posts on the GOP's Facebook page, where roughly 93,000 people have connected with the RNC. From the new site, users can also view the RNC's Twitter feed along with YouTube videos and a flickr slideshow.

The party says new site will also act as a Web platform that will play host to applications which the party is encouraging conservative online activists to build for the site. It also hosts eight new blogs, including a blog written by Steele, entitled "What up?"

"The Internet has been around for awhile, now," Steele writes in his first blog post on the revamped site. "Today, I want to begin to better connect with Republicans everywhere."

But not all Republicans are happy with the new approach, as the site faced some early criticism from conservatives. A blog post on the conservative portal townhall.com called GOP.com a "(Red) Hot Mess" and "downright embarrassing."
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The official Barack Obama Twitter account after the announcement of his Nobel Peace Prize award.
(Photo Credit: Twitter.com)

A screengrab of Barack Obama's Twitter account (run by Organizing for America, President Obama's political arm which is now operated out of the Democratic National Committee), echoes the word that, according to Twitter, most Americans have on their mind: humbled. The other two words that quickly rose on Twitter's Trending Topic list, which reflects what is drawing the most discussion on Twitter right now are "Nobel" and "President Obama."

The re-design of the Justice Department Web site.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Justice Department became "Justice 2.0" Thursday, unveiling their new Web site and robust social media strategy on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and MySpace.

Since taking office, the Obama administration has been pushing for transparency in government and cabinet members have been revamping their Web and social media strategies accordingly.

"We'll see what opportunities arise," a Justice spokesperson told CNN on the strategy behind their accounts. "But the basic premise is it is a way to get our message to more people and that message can be received by people where they are online. They don't have to come to us, it can come to them."

The new Justice.gov incorporates a new blog and will have a regularly updated photo and video library (the old site had photos and videos, but were not updated on a regular basis).

The YouTube page currently has five videos explaining the role of the DOJ and the roles of the attorney general, associate AG and deputy AG. Moving forward, the site will feature press conferences, speeches and public service announcements. The Facebook and MySpace pages will act as a clearing house for all the social media the DOJ is pushing. @TheJusticeDept on Twitter will be an informative and educational hub pointing to breaking news, information, quotes form the attorney general, notes from high profile events, and links to new content.

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Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has become the third cabinet member in the Obama administration to join Twitter.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has become the third Cabinet Member in the Obama administration to join Twitter, the microblogging social network. He joined yesterday to help promote Commerce and also keep in touch with American entrepreneurs.

"It's important that the Department of Commerce regularly communicates with American businesses and entrepreneurs to help them translate new ideas into economic growth," Locke told CNN. "Innovation is going to be the key to our long-term economic growth, and we need to embrace new ways of communicating with small businesses and entrepreneurs."

Locke announced his intentions to join Twitter yesterday in a speech delivered at the Inc. 500 / 5000 Conference, geared towards small business owners and entrepreneurs. The secretary noted he recently met with technology entrepreneurs at the White House and wanted to keep connected.

"I will start Tweeting regularly on innovation and entrepreneurship issues and look forward to hearing your thoughts on them," he said.

While the White House keeps a regularly updated Twitter account, the other two cabinet members on Twitter are Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (@raylahood) and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (@hildasolisdol).

You can follow Sec. Locke on Twitter @seclocke.

Joe Wilson and his online team turned what could have been a PR disaster, in to an online success story.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - When Rep. Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" at President Obama, the South Carolina Republican's political team quickly launched an online strategy to capitalize on the incident.

Wilson's heated outburst came on the House floor as Obama addressed a joint session of Congress about health care.

Within 12 hours, Wilson media consultant Brian Donahue had sketched out a plan that included buying ads on Google, cutting videos on YouTube and using Twitter and Facebook to raise money and counter the congressman's critics.

"We knew that influencers and news outlets would want to find out more information about what happened and what Joe Wilson's response was, and they would be looking for this information online," Donahue told CNN. "The events were happening by the minute and by the hour. Online was where we needed to be to respond and provide new information from Congressman Wilson. Traditional print media couldn't keep up with the pace of this issue."

Full Story

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Online fundraising site ActBlue announced Friday that since Republican congressman Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's address, his Democratic opponent Rob Miller has raised over $787,951 (and rising) on the site.  The first donation came in at 9:15 p.m. ET on September 9.

ActBlue Deputy Communications Director Adrian Arroyo told CNN that the donations have come in from over 21,622 people since Wednesday night's speech, a major jump from the 5,000 who had contributed as of yesterday.  Arroyo admits that since the fundraising push is viral, "there is no one place to locate what is going on.  You have DailyKos, Twitter and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee circling these issues. There is no one prime mover."  The mean contribution size is $36.

Two links leading back to ActBlue's donation pages have been clicked on over 9,500 times, said the group. Two days after the speech, Joe Wilson is still the top trending topic on Twitter - and ActBlue has benefited greatly, with more than 1,000 tweets about their fundraising efforts for the congressman's opponent.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Two links (Miller's ActBlue listing and fundraising page) allowing people to donate to Rep. Congressman Joe Wilson's opponent Rob Miller went viral last night on e-mail, Twitter and Facebook, raising approximately $100,000, according to the liberal group pushing for the contributions.

The links came from online fundraising site ActBlue, and the first donation via the links came in at 9:30 p.m. ET last night. ActBlue's two links were clicked on over 3,000 times. The overwhelming majority of those clicks came in from people e-mailing the links, followed by a people sharing the link on Twitter. A smaller number of donors put the link on Facebook.

ActBlue Deputy Communications Director Adrian Arroyo told CNN that the donations have come in from over 5,000 individuals.

As President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress, CNN's team will be Tweeting live.

The Best Political Team will deliver real time analysis, color and observations of President Obama’s address tonight on health care.

CNN correspondents, analysts and producers will be providing instant reports in bite-size “tweets” of Obama’s speech, the Republican response being delivered by Rep. Charles Boustany, and the analysis and color that surrounds these nationally televised events.

Tune in at 7:30 p.m. ET and keep refreshing the Ticker for the very latest on this critical night in the health care debate.

Done for tonight. For individual analysis follow @EdHenryCNN, @CrowleyCNN, @SamFeistCNN, @PrestonCNN, @sinderbrandrCNN, @hambypCNN, @KuhnCNN

CNN Poll on Obama plan: pre-speech 53% favor/36 oppose...post speech 67 favor/29 oppose.

CNN Poll: 72% of speech watchers said Obama "Clearly stated his health care goals"

Poll results coming in now. Stand by.

RT @PrestonCNN: I'm unable to access Rep. Wilson's House Web site. But here is his bio: http://bit.ly/PYYay

RT @KuhnCNN: Joe Wilson is now the top trending topic on Twitter. (from CNN's Jeff Simon)

RT @PrestonCNN: Tonight was supposed to be about President Obama, but Joe Wilson and Ted Kennedy stole the show.

RT @PoliticalTicker: "CNN confirms: Rep. Wilson the congressional heckler" – http://bit.ly/aEWS1

RT @PoliticalTicker: "Picture of the night: Joe Wilson's outburst - http://bit.ly/3P5zbp

GOP Rep. Dave Camp on lie outburst: "I don't advise that, I think it's important to listen as respectfully as possible."

Sen. John McCain told Larry King that Wilson's shout "totally disrespectful. He should apologize immediately."

RT @PrestonCNN: Rep. Camp, senior Republican on Ways & Means, tells CNN that Obama's speech was "well delivered" but "overtly political."

GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie!” at President Obama, CNN confirms.

RT @hambypCNN: DNC chair Tim Kaine: Obama gave "a stirring and passionate address" ... "We hope Republicans will join us."

We got numbers: CNN poll guru Keating Holland on hand for instant poll on how speech played, results within the hour...

The Kennedy Letter.@PoliticalTicker Kennedy to Obama: “There will be struggles on health care reform" http://bit.ly/107lcO

RThttp://twitter.com/kingsthings: The president's speech ends, but we'll be on after the Republican response from Rep. Charles Boustany

WH releases text of Ted Kennedy letter Obama mentioned: 'I wanted to write a few final words to you...'

RT @KuhnCNN: Picture from CNN Radio studio with @PrestonCNN, who is doing post-speech analysis: http://yfrog.com/0okdotj

RT @PoliticalTicker: "Obama ready to move on tort reform" – http://bit.ly/5aN9Z

Spokesman says GOP Members did bring copies of Republican bills to the floor w/ them tonight to show that they do have healthcare proposals.

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The official account of the Kennedy family will inform followers about memorial and funeral plans.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Kennedy family started a Twitter account Wednesday to inform followers about memorial and funeral plans for Senator Ted Kennedy.

The account - @KennedyNews - has sent out four messages thus far. Posted yesterday, the first "tweet" noted, "This is the official account of the Kennedy family and staff. Will be used for info about memorial and funeral activities. #tedkennedy."

Since his death, Ted Kennedy has been one of the leading topics of conversation on the micro-blog social networking site that prides itself for keeping tabs on the nation's conversation minute-by-minute. @KennedyNews links back to TedKennedy.org, which is operated by the Committee for a Democratic Majority.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - While dignitaries from around the world have been revealing their thoughts on the passing of Ted Kennedy, others have taken to Twitter to express their views and feelings in 140 characters. Twitter has been buzzing today with memories and condolences from across the political spectrum:

(See tweets after the jump)
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Four House Republicans have formed the Republican New Media Caucus.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Four Republicans behind the House Republican New Media Caucus (@GOPNMC on Twitter) are aiming to set a technological example for their colleagues.

"It's like that old saying 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks,'" Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Latta told CNN, "Well, yeah, you can."

Latta (@boblatta on Twitter) along with fellow Republicans Rep. John Culberson of Texas (@johnculberson), Rep. Buck McKeon (@BuckMcKeon) of California, and Rep. Rob Wittman (@RobWittman) of Virginia are the co-chairs of the House GOP New Media Caucus.

Roughly 60 House Republicans have joined the caucus, according to Latta's office. The group plans to sponsor staff briefings every four to eight weeks where Republican staffers will have the opportunity to meet with representatives of technology companies like YouTube, Apple, and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

The caucus, which recently launched a Web site, is scouting social media services and other new technologies that might be of use to the rest of House Republican Conference in keeping in touch with the public.

Constituents "want to be kept up to date from us right now," Latta said, "They don't want to have to wait half a day, or a day, or two days later to actually get the communication," from a congressional office. So, the group is trying to identify "best practices" on social media services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Qik, and UStream.

The four men are also using the technologies themselves, an effort to set an example for colleagues who may be reticent to try out social media.
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A new site launched to help progressives organize on Twitter.

Tracy Viselli, a progressive blogger and social media consultant who admitted on Friday to CNN that conservatives have the upper hand on Twitter, launched a Web site Monday geared towards changing the paradigm on Twitter.

Viselli, along with developer Jim Gilliam, blogger Jon Pincus, and Netroots Nation board member Gina Cooper created TweetProgress.us "to start seriously building progressive infrastructure on Twitter."

"What we are doing first is building up the directory of progressives on Twitter," Viselli told CNN.

TweetProgressive.us is going to help mentor progressives on how to best use Twitter, filter data to allow people to follow the "P2" (progressives 2.0) hash tag, encourage new tweeters, and continue adding and implementing ideas to better organize.

Pincus co-founded "#P2" – a way to category a tweet, allowing for easy search optimization – six months ago with Viselli and is also behind the new site. He told CNN in an e-mail, "The timing now is perfect to ramp into the legislative battles the second half of this year - and the 2010 midterms...With the summer winding down, now's a great time to be launching TweetProgress.us."

For progressives, this first step is hopefully a launching pad for further grassroots efforts on Twitter. "We hope in the future to find ways to deploy action on Twitter," says Viselli. "But we are not there yet."

So far, over 1,150 people had singed up to participate in TweetProgress.us.

Which party has the upper hand on Twitter?

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Liberal bloggers established online political activism, besting their conservative rivals during President George W. Bush's eight years in office. But conservatives are now finding great success 140 characters at a time. Even this week, the conservative organization Club For Growth promoted their Twitter account on their $1.2 million ad campaign against health care.

Even though President Obama and national Democrats use Twitter – the social micro blog that everyone from Ashton Kutcher and Shaquille O'Neal to Chuck Grassley and Newt Gingrich often use to directly speak to followers – Republicans have embraced the technology. And with major policy issues being debated and the midterm elections right around the corner, liberal bloggers acknowledge the GOP has the upper hand when it comes to using 140 character messages known as "tweets" to influence the discussion.

"While it is obvious the progressive blogosphere is superior, we are being out-organized on Twitter," said Gina Cooper, a blogger who helped organize Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of online liberal activists that met last week in Pittsburgh. "There is some catching up to do on the progressive side."
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BlogTalkRadio.com, a social networking site, will host President Obama on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – On the social networking check list, President Barack Obama has been able to check off Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Now he will add another social network to his list: BlogTalkRadio.

Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, 40 Minutes for Health Reform, hosted by a coalition of pro-reform faith groups which are multi-denominational, will premiere. For the first 30 minutes, faith-based leaders and a top ranking administration official (all to be officially announced tomorrow) will "share their stories about how our broken health care system has affected the lives of their loved ones and what is at stake in this debate," according to Faith in Public Life spokesperson Kristin Williams. Obama will then talk for the next 10 minutes.

Audience members will be encouraged to call in and listen to the show (but will not be able to speak on air) or can listen live on BlogTalkRadio.com. While the interview is occurring, "listeners will be tweeting it and putting it up on their Facebook pages," BlogTalkRadio Founder and CEO Alan Levy told CNN. "We are really one of the only platforms that can enable a live conversation to take place. A platform that enables Obama to reach large audiences through social tools."

Other political guests who have appeared on BlogTalkRadio include Michelle Obama, John McCain, Oliver Stone, and Yoko Ono. The Pentagon also has a Radio Network on the site.

Once 40 Minutes for Health Reform concludes, the show will be immediately achieved and available to listen to on the site, indexed for Google searches, syndicated and shared on social networks. The Wednesday show is the only one planned, but Williams said they are open to having future events on this platform.

Senator Grassley goes after Senator Specter on his Twitter account.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Political rivals are turning up the heat on Twitter - even if they've only got 140 characters to work with.

The latest Twit-fight came Friday, when Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D) and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) exchanged jabs on the social networking site.

It started around 1:00 p.m. ET when @SenArlenSpecter tweeted, "Called Senator Grassley to tell him to stop speading myths about health care reform and imaginary 'death panels.'" This was followed up with "Had to leave a message - for now. I will talk to him soon."

@ChuckGrassley was quick to respond: "Specter got it all wrong that I ever used words 'death boards'. Even liberal press never accused me of that. So change ur last Tweet Arlen."

The back-and-forth was sparked by Grassley's remark at a town hall in Iowa earlier this week, when the Senator told the audience: "We should not have a government program that determines if you're going to pull the plug on Grandma." Grassley did not use the term "death boards" or "death panels."

Currently, Specter has slightly over 4,000 followers on his Twitter account and Grassley has more than 15,000 followers.

In the past, politicians might have reserved their toughest blows for television sound bites or press releases. But Twitter is turning into a battlefield of its own.

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NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg sent out his first Twitter message in both English and Spanish.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who built a communications empire by fusing technology and journalism, entered the Twittersphere Tuesday when he sent out his first micro-blog message. And he did it with a twist.

Bloomberg, who is seeking a third term in November, sent out a note that was written in English and Spanish.  @MikeBloomberg wrote: "Good morning! Trying this out during my spanish lesson. Como se dice 'first tweet'?"

News quickly spread around that the mayor's first tweet was partly in Spanish, but it is not the first time a language other than English has been used to convey a message by a politician on Twitter. For example, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a Twitter account that only tweets his news in Spanish. And the White House not only tweets in English and Spanish, but has also sent out a message in Farsi.

Twitter does not maintain data on how many Hispanics use the social networking or how many people tweet in Spanish. Yukari Matsuzawa, who heads Twitter's International team, did tell CNN via e-mail, "It is very exciting though that Mayor Bloomberg is tweeting in Spanish! We hope to encourage more international tweets."