In both a sign of the power of new media and elevated muckraking, the Democratic National Party recently launched a website hellbent on making Republican Presidential contender John McCain look like a flip-flopping reactionary. 

The website is called McCainpedia to convey the fact it is both about McCain and is populated by visitors using a Wiki -  a technology that allows anyone to submit content to the website (think Wikipedia).  Although pretty basic, the site highlights the issues on which McCain most deviates from the Democratic party, namely Iraq, maintaining the Bush tax cuts, and abortion. It also showcases McCain's top verbal blunders of his political campaign, like his statement that he's be OK with the U.S. remaining in Iraq for "100 years," although he later clarified he simply wanted a military presence there similar to the security forces that currently exist in Germany, Korea, and Japan.

In another section, entitled FlipperTV, a series of videos showcases candid moments along the campaign trail where McCain was asked tough questions and gave poor, partial or nebulous answers.  While it's a bit ironic to attempt to depict McCain as a Presidential contender offering only vague solutions and promises of change given that's the main criticism of Senator Obama's campaign, the reality is that FlipperTV fails to paint McCain as a flip-flopper the way John Kerry was in 2004. 

While a good idea for the party, McCainpedia stops well short of making the Republican contender seem disingenuous, unresolved, or out of touch - three goals the website appears to be reaching towards.  At the end of the day, the thin content simply highlights the fact that there are fewer differences between McCain and the democrats than the dems would like to admit.