Today I'm guest blogging at John Hawkins' blog, Right Wing News. I've got a post up that takes a look at John McCain's health care plan that he's been aggressively pushing out this week. Of course, I focus quite a bit on one particular provision which would require Docs and health care providers to better utilize technology to help provide more information to patients.

Here's an excerpt (but follow the link to read the full post):

My Perspective: McCain’s Health Care Plan

On Tuesday, I was one of the many bloggers and members of the media on a conference call with two of Team McCain’s top advisers, senior policy advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. (Unrelated to health care but you can click here to see my video interview with Carly a few weeks ago.)

A thorough overview of McCain’s health care plan can be viewed by clicking here.

As a single male at the age of 29 with little real need for health care, as a technology enthusiast and a small businessman, two particular nuggets jumped out at me worth fleshing out. I’ll also note by way of disclosure that one of my clients operates in the health care space so I understand the issue from all sides.

Click here to read the rest of the post and don't forget to bookmark RWN.

Heads-up - just received the following note from Team McCain announcing a health care town hall:

Today, John McCain will be holding a LIVE health care town hall in Pennsylvania that you can watch online! Tune in to JohnMcCain.com at 2:00 PM EDT to watch John McCain take questions from Pennsylvania voters.

This townhall is part of John McCain's "Call to Action Tour," during which he is talking about the need for health care reform in America that lowers cost, improves access and puts patients back in the driver's seat.

Tune in today at 2:00 PM to watch John McCain in action.

Learn more about McCain's free-market health care plan which will help make health care more available and affordable by clicking here.

TV ad released by McCain on the issue:

This morning I jumped on one of Senator John McCain's regularly scheduled blogger calls and covered the action for TechRepublican. It's been a while since I was last on one of these calls, but felt good to be back in the mix. I tried to catch everything, but missed a few remarks and what's not in blockquotes is paraphrased.

The call started a few minutes late, due to technical difficulties, but the Senator began by making two points.

1. I've been traveling around the country. Was just in Inez, Kentucky where 44 years ago LBJ vowed to eradicate poverty.

Since then we've learned a number of lessons, including that local control is more effective then bureaucracy in Washington, DC.

Yesterday, I walked the 9th Ward in New Orleans with Governor Bobby Jindal.

I vowed it would never happen again.

2. There's an ongoing debate about the economy.

If Americans want their taxes raised, then I'm not their guy.

Spending is the problem in DC, not the lack of revenue.

Anyone who wants to raise taxes in difficult times doesn't understand basic economics.

I want to give Americans a break on their gas taxes this summer - $0.18 on gas, $0.24 on diesel.

Questions
Why did you ask the NC GOP to pull their ad linking Sen. Obama to Rev. Wright?

I asked them to pull the North Carolina ad because it isn't the tenor of the campaign that we want to wage.

There are many other issues that need to be discussed and that's not one of them.

Will you campaign strongly in California?

I intend to compete in California. I'm a western Senator, I understand the issues of a western state. It has 53 votes, and Governor Schwarzenegger has proved that you can compete there.

What are your recent impressions of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki?

His decision to go into Basra surprised all of us, had some set-backs, and the Iraqi army had some desertions. But the Iraqi military has taken over the entire city of Basra.

His actions seems to have the united the government more... Overall, I'm rather pleased.

Jim Geraghty
Regarding Senator Obama's relationship with Rev. Wright, is that something that voters deserve to know about?

(There was a lot of static on this part of the call, so I couldn't catch everthing Sen. McCain said.)

It's my view that the ad is inappropriate and should be taken down. As the party's nominee, I cannot order the the North Carolina state party to take the ad down though.

However, the fundamental purpose of the Republican party structure is to elect Republican candidates and I don't think that helps do that.

Jennifer Rubin
Hamas has indicated they would be very pleased with an Obama presidency, thoughts?

I will be Hamas worst nightmare.

Senator McCain said he'll be leaving for Arkansas today to travel the state with Mike Huckabee and then heading to Florida on Sunday for some fundraisers.

He once again extend an invite to bloggers to join him on his campaign bus, and expressed his appreciation for the hard work we bloggers are doing.

The call ended at about 10:30AM.

TechPresident's Joshua Levy is blogging about the revelation that the McCain Girls -- the trio of fiery women singing about their support of John McCain in a rather unique style -- were, in fact, a hoax. The wildly popular and horrendous hoax was the effort of 23/6.

As reported by the New York Times:

The McCain Girls videos, which were posted on YouTube last month with no clues about their provenance, are clearly meant to be imitations of — or parodies of — the “Obama Girl” videos, which themselves are parodies (right?).

While the Obama Girl looks like a pinup and sings catchy tunes, the McCain Girls could not be confused with fashion models or pop music stars. Their first video, “Raining McCain,” set to the tune of “It’s Raining Men,” was posted on YouTube four weeks ago. A sample lyric: “In the 2008 election, the forecast calls for rain; the first time in history, it’s gonna start raining McCain.”

We went back to our series of posts on the McCain Girls (here, here, and here), and found that the most recent video has even been removed "due to a copyright claim by The MCPS - PRS Alliance Ltd."

Pity. The McCain Girls will be missed. However, I don't think we've seen the last of ridiculous people making ridiculous videos on YouTube worth chuckling about.

This is going to make your day: YouTube user McCain Girls are back with another "instant-classic":

In case you've missed our previous coverage on the McCain Girls head-first dive in to the politics + technology sphere:

* Raining McCain
* McCain Girl(s) Strike Back

A tipster friend on the Left passed along the link with the following cover note:

I don’t understand – is this authorized? Butt-ugly women singing covers of 80’s songs with poorly rhymed phrases? Is this what your polling shows is the secret to putting Mac over the top? Any plans to run this on MTV/VH1? I’m sure those young voters will LOVE it!

I don't know the answer to any of those questions but this sure is fun to watch.

Today I had an opportunity to meet and have a candid conversation with Carly Fiorina, the former head of HP, who is currently serving as the RNC's Victory Chair. Issues covered in the interview include her new role in support of John McCain and the Republican Party, Barack Obama's success on the Internet, McCain's strong opposition to Internet taxation, Net Neutrality/Open Internet, and her personal use of technology.

Here's the interview via YouTube (full transcript below):

For background and relevant posts from this space that have included Carly, read the following items:
* Thank God! High-Tech Women Taking Hold of McCain Campaign;
* McCain to Embrace the Long Tail of Fundrasing; and
* Will McCain Support an Open Internet?.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW:

David All: Ok, it’s DAVID ALL with TechRepublican. I’m here with CARLY FIORINA the new Victory Chairman for the Republican National Committee. And what exactly is that Carly?

Carly Fiorina: Well, it turns out that my role really is to advocate for both JOHN MCCAIN and for the Republican Party. And to make sure that as many Americans as possible understand why this is the Party of the future and why John McCain is the right man to be President of the United States.

DA: Absolutely. A few quick questions. Do you have an iPhone or a blackberry?

CF: I have two blackberry’s actually. My husband is an iPhone man so we kind of having dueling technology in the house.

DA: Very interesting. And are you a Mac user or do you stick to HP?

CF: No I’m still an HP user I have to say, although the Mac is a beautiful, wonderful piece of machinery so we may get there one of these days.

DA: Very interesting. Well I actually wrote about you and Meg Whitman joining the team as a real great sign that some strong women who are Republicans are taking a very active role and a very vocal role in John McCain’s campaign. If you can just talk to me a little bit about what it means to be a female and at the top of the Party as you are, and possibly going up against Hillary Clinton and what that could mean?

CF: Well I’ve been a Republican all my life and I’ve been with John McCain on this campaign for the last 15 months. And I first met him in 2000 not associated with his campaign but on the subject of Internet taxation. And I think one of the things that is very important in this campaign is first, that the American people understand that John McCain wants the best and the brightest around him – and if we’re women so much the better – but I think it’s also really important for the Republican Party to reach out to more women – to reach out to all aspects of American society – because we need more than die-hard Republicans to win this election and I think John McCain is the man who can reach out.

DA: Very interesting. And when you were named Fortune named you what, the “Top Woman,” what was the actual title in 1998?

CF: For six years running I was what Fortune Magazine called the “Most Powerful Woman in Business…”

DA: And you didn’t like that right?

CF: I shouldn’t say it that way. Look, it was a tremendous honor, and I think highlighting successful women in business is hopefully an inspiration to others. But on the other hand, the point I made then was if you have one list for women, then what you’re basically saying is that business is like tennis or golf or some other kind of sport. You know, there’s the women’s ladder and there’s the men’s ladder. And business is better – politics is better – if everybody gets to play, so there shouldn’t be a special list for women.

DA: Very interesting. One issue I want to address quickly is what I call the Long Tail of Politics and the Long Tail of Fundraising. Of course this is off of Chris Anderson’s idea and Barack Obama is really tapping in to these folks who have never contributed money before and they’re giving in low contributions. How do you intend to help navigate John McCain toward that direction?

CF: Well first of all we have a very experienced and top-notch fundraising team and I have to say right up front that I’m not a fundraiser so I’m not the expert here. But what I would say is that it’s pretty clear that Barack Obama has done a fantastic job of tapping in to a whole new set of interested parties and in using technology to help him do that. And so we have to do more and more of that. I think it’s fair to say that we have work to do and John McCain says that but it’s also fair to say that we are using technology more and more creatively and aggressively here. So there is a lot going on with search engine marketing for example, and search engine optimization on the campaign. There were some cute things that were done by the RNC around eCards, Valentine’s Day for example. We do more and more in terms of Facebook independence. So we’re doing the right things, we need to do more of them, and I think we need to give Barack Obama his due and say he’s done a brilliant job and we can all learn from it.

DA: Fantastic. One issue I want to talk about is policy. Our community cares about technology-related issues. One issue, which is starting to bubble up more and more, is the issue of Net Neutrality and an Open Internet. I wonder if you had a position on that issue?

CF: Well let me broaden the question slightly because it’s relevant to why I’m supporting John McCain. Innovation is what grows economies. Innovation is what creates jobs. It’s always been true. But sometimes, some people forget that. And innovation can be fostered or it can be inhibited. The reason I went to meet with John McCain in the year 2000 many years ago on the subject of Internet taxation was to make the case that we can’t tax innovation. And John McCain “got it” immediately. He has since said that we ought to ban permanently taxation on the Internet or taxation on mobile technologies, etc. Now why is all that relevant? It’s relevant because if we are going to grow our economy, which is vital, particularly when you look at the jobs reports we’ve seen over the last couple days, then we have to be fostering innovative technologies and we have to be focused on policies that incent and reward innovation. And so that’s the context that I look at Net Neutrality in. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but I think that context is really important and we all know that where we talk a lot about free markets not all of our markets are free. And there are a variety of players today that impact on the Internet – cable companies as an example – I think it’s fair to say that we don’t have a completely free market on this issue today and so there’s some things that government could do to accelerate a true free-market.

DA: There’s a rumor going around saying that you may be in the hat for VP? Have you heard this?

CF: I don’t even think about that. Nobody else should either. The media loves to talk about the rumors of the moment. The media has been spending a lot of time talking about John McCain’s VP choice. John will make that decision when he is good and ready not before. At the very least, probably, I would guess, he’ll wait until we know who the opponent is on the other side. But look, I’m privileged to be able to make a difference I hope in electing a great man to be a great President. And as well, to help introduce the Republican Party to people who may not have thought about the Republican Party before and to invite people to this Party because I think this is the Party of innovation, and job creation, and growth. I think this is the Party of the future.

DA: Well that’s kind of a grandiose idea but let’s take a step back and if we can conclude here, if there’s one thing that you hope to accomplish that’s tangible, that you can reach out and grab, I mean you’re a CEO you have to do this stuff all the time, what would that be?
CF: We have to win in November that’s a really easy answer. We have to win the White House in November.

DA: Well there you go, there you have it. Well thanks very much and good luck and we’ll talk to you soon.

CF: Great, thanks.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a deservedly unkind and undeservedly lengthy post about John McCain's social network-in-name-only. It's essentially just a personalized donation page, glorified by its socnet-ish name: McCainSpace. Or MyMcCain. That part hadn't been sorted out by its launch.

In any case, that was then. I hadn't been back since (who thought back then there would be a McCain campaign right now?) and recently decided that a follow-up might be in order. So what is it now?

It's exactly the same. The McCain campaign website doesn't seem to have much interest in making their website into a real destination. As I said then, a campaign does not need a social network of its own, but if you're going to claim one, actually have one.

Actually, something has changed with the profile I used to illustrate the problem last year. It's Debaser, the Un Chien Andalou/Black Francis-inspired username of Todd Zeigler at Bivings Group. Here's the image I posted last year:

The page is unchanged, with one exception. Here's the detail:

Granted, $100 is not a lot, for a presidential campaign or the fourteen months between the first screen shot and the second. But for a website that's essentially abandoned, it's a fortune.

I asked Zeigler if he had donated, or knew who had. The first word of his reply: "Weird." Zeigler logged in and found out that the donor hailed from the Delmarva Peninsula and was not known to him. In an e-mail reply he allowed me to share, Zeigler offered two possibilities:

(1) [Name Redacted] stumbled across my page (or blog post) and gave through it.

(2) Funny business.

I'm going with (1) but for Debaser to reach its assigned goal, (2) may have to get involved.

Cross-posted from Blog P.I.

Remember this? I'm still singing the "Raining McCain" song by the McCain Girls. Well, I don't know about singing, but you know what I mean. With more than 600k views on the video, I doubt I'm alone.

As first blogged today by Joshua Levy at TechPresident, the "lead" McCain Girl has fired back at some of her detractors in a response video. And she even drops the "F__" bomb. Classy.

Light at the end of the tunnel? There will be more McCain Girl videos. She ends the video by stating, "Just stay on the lookout for the next McCain Girl video. And by the way, you're welcome bitches."

Some gifts just keep on giving.

You heard it here first: According to a trusted source, Congressman Eric Cantor's top online eGuru, Matt Lira, is moving to John McCain's campaign to serve as the "Webmaster." He'll reside atop the property at JohnMcCain.com, devising and implementing online strategies to better promote McCain online. Nice.

Lira has been a humble leader in the politics + technology circle yielding praise and notice for Congressman Cantor in the form scoop after scoop of delicious porridge.

Cantor's operation will doubtless miss Lira's creative and execution genius, but Cantor is known for being quite the team player for the Republican Party, so I'm sure he realized how important this move would be for both Matt and McCain.

Prior to his service with Cantor, Lira served under Patrick Ruffini at the RNC as the Deputy Director of eCampaign for eCommunication. Given the good work Lira has done for Cantor, it's clear that Ruffini trained his team well.

Congratulations Matt and best of luck.

Tattletale John McCain has launched a new web ad via YouTube titled, "Heroes." You have to watch the video to "get" the title.

This video is a nice virtual complement to McCain's "bio" tour and will help tell us another side of the John McCain story. Porridge.

However, I do have one question: Is that incense burning throughout or something else? I don't get the reference.