Caleefornya thanks you for the add

Election day is coming up in these here parts so it's time to flex those weakened voting muscles. Yeah, it's been a while for me too. Hmm... at least since like Taylor Hicks.

To help you make those critical decisions, there's the uber informative television commercials, tons of mail (e and snail), slick websites, puffy blogs and even the occasional phone call. But you and I both know those tactics are like so last election. No, this year the coolest candidates are on MySpace.

Take, for example, the California governor's race. Phil's got an official MySpace (page, but no one says page after MySpace, that's so lame). Arnold, well Arnie doesn't have an official one but there's arnoldisback, dictatorschwarzenegger, governor_arnie, governorofcalifornia and the very ultra-hip named 8198043.

Phil's got 7,328 friends, more than any of the Arnie clones can claim. Among Phil's friends: Tom (slut), Jesus, Orange County, the UN, Gandhi, Lindsay Lohan and an army of guys and girls sans shirts. I don't care about his platform, with a collection of friends like this, he's a shoo-in. I'm not Phil's friend by the way because he was online earlier and I wanted to chat but he totally blew me off. Whatevs dude.

On a serious note, this is an interesting online play. I'm pretty sure going on MySpace is not going to affect any candidate's chances for success. However, a candidate doesn't work alone and if you're trying to marshal the troops on the ground, (you know, the button-making, lawn stabbing, clipboard-waving unjaded youth of America) well, this isn't a bad way to do it.

When people are passionate about something, they need outlets to express this passion. The use of MySpace brings the campaign home to something familiar to the volunteers and their friends. It is the equivalent of staking that poster in your lawn. Is it really going to make a difference, probably not much, but it makes you feel like a contributor.

In this age of indifference, any outlet for political expression and discussion is a-okay in my book. So go out there, bump all your loser friends out of your top 8 and replace them with Phil or the Arnies or both (non-Californians, BYOCandidates). Heck, if nothing else, it'll bump up your friend count and you know you need a little help there.