Hot Sites Take Voters for a Ride

Barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com is the latest internet fad: a simple web page that displays a seemingly inexhaustible supply of (likely fictitious) good deeds Barack Obama did for you. He "added you as a friend," "built you a robot," and "made you a mixtape," to start. But what, the Boston Phoenix asks, is the intent behind the site? A pro-Obama-mania celebration? A criticism of the candidate’s ethereal promises?

Neither, says its creator, Wired contributing editor Matt Honan, who started the site as a joke with his wife, a fervent Obama supporter. But regardless of intent, the site and knockoffs devoted to other candidates are barometers of real political feeling: John McCain “worries the neighborhood has gotten worse” while Hillary Clinton “is overusing emoticons” and “owns a Zune.” (More Barack Obama stories.)