First Impressions from Campaign Websites

Ron Paul is an internet celebrity in the realm of campaign fund raising and for good reason: his campaign has garnered $19.5 million in donations in the fourth quarter, $6 million of that on the December 16th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The news media never fails to mention his internet popularity and the fact that the majority of his donations stem from the tubes that run the new world. When I went to check out Ron Paul’s website and that of some other candidates, I was intrigued. Users who go to the Super Libertarian’s internet presence are presented with a clean and informative site:

Top and center is useful information, in this case the time until the upcoming caucus in Iowa and primaries in New Hampshire. The site includes information about his fund raising effort, links to donate and a form for getting campaign update emails below the fold. Visiting other campaign sites is a different story:

When you visit the websites for HIllary Clinton or Barack Obama you are asked for contact information before seeing anything substantive. You have to fill out the form or click through to get to the candidate’s website. Thankfully, their websites send cookies; subsequent visits forgo the information garnering forms whether or not you put in anything. But why put up this stumbling block? Ron Paul’s site is much more elegant; the form for signing up to get campaign information is still easy to get to, but it’s not intrusive.