This U.S. Presidential Race will be like no other

Last night, here in the U.S., George Bush gave his State of The Union address along with the Democratic response. The Washington Post, for the first time ever, had a live stream of both speeches plus live online commentary from the Associate Editor of the Post.

"The State of the Union Address is a vital means of communication with the American public, and washingtonpost.com upholds its commitment to extend and expand on that communication," said Jim Brady, executive editor and vice president, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. "We are excited to continue pushing the boundaries of live reporting with our real-time video coverage and analysis."

As I noted on Monday, pluggd held a battle between the speakers plus their technology allows you to jump to the exact moment of the speech that you are looking for.

We have Robert Scoble and Rocketboom televising the candidacy announcement of John Edwards. This evening, Senator Edwards will host a "video discussion" about the speeches last night.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also used video to announce their candidacies.

Rocketboom analyzed each video announcement and provides some interesting commentary on how each one was created and the "lies" in the videos. beet.tv says Barack won round one based on his "viralability". Andy Plesser notes, "In the election battle for the smartest use of online video, Obama wins this first one over Clinton."

There will obviously be more political blogs than ever before. Fan sites and hate sites will also become mainstream. Who will use the Internet "correctly"? Which Internet team will win?

The bottom line here is that no matter who wins, the online space will play a major role in helping (or hurting) each candidate. Use the online space correctly, gain. Use it negatively, lose. If the candidates think that dealing with the major news outlets is difficult, every pixel will be analyzed online. Part of my overall concern is whether the majority of the Internet who pick apart these messages will actually vote. If so, the Internet community could easily decide the future President.