Tonight was Hillary Clinton’s first live web discussion. Pretty great use of technology. The logon worked well, the streaming was smooth and clear, and the color and lighting was professional. She certainly raises the bar for the other candidates and for the government itself.

This makes me wonder where are the other candidates? Wikipedia (as of today) listed the following candidates or potential / possible candidates: 

Democratic Party

Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Democratic Party:

• Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut
• Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina
• Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska
• Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
• Former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa

Candidates who have formed exploratory committees:

• Senator Joe Biden of Delaware (Unite Our States PAC)
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York
• Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
• Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico

Candidates who have expressed serious interest:

• Retired General Wesley Clark of Arkansas (WesPAC - Securing America)
• Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts (Keeping America’s Promise)
• Reverend Al Sharpton of New York

Republican Party

Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Republican Party:

• Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
• John H. Cox of Illinois
• Michael Charles Smith of Oregon

Candidates who have formed exploratory committees:

• Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia
• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York
• Representative Duncan Hunter of California
• Senator John McCain of Arizona
• Representative Ron Paul of Texas
• Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts
• Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado
• Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin

Candidates who have expressed serious interest:

• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia (Winning the Future)
• Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (Sandhills PAC)
• Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas (Hope for America PAC)
• Former Governor George Pataki of New York (21st Century Freedom PAC)

Third parties

Constitution Party

• James Gilchrist of California

Green Party

• Nan Garrett of Georgia
• Kat Swift of Texas

Libertarian Party

• Steve Kubby of California
• George Phillies of Massachusetts
• Christine Smith of Colorado

Announced candidates:

• Doug Stanhope of Arizona

Actively pursuing or interested in candidacy:

• Robert Milnes of New Jersey

Prohibition Party

• Gene Amondson of Washington

Independents

Actively pursuing or interested in candidacy

• Steve Adams of Kentucky
• New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York
• Bob W. Hargis of Oklahoma
• Daniel Imperato of Florida
• David A. Koch of Utah and Ken Goldstein of California
• Charles T. Maxham of New Jersey

*     *     *     * 

These people all have websites, which is a step in the right direction. However, after what I saw this evening, the rest of this group is still a step behind already. Senator Clinton has scored one for contemporary communication, and while she has never been my favorite candidate, I do feel she is more in-touch with our modern world than any of the others.

This will be an interesting election.

Two different senators with the same job prospects. I love the picture of them the New York Times captured:

For equal time, here are their websites (in their order in the photo): Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

So, Senator Clinton has finally admitted she is running for President. While she has never impressed while being my senator, I am happy with her technology plans she listed on her website website. I went there and signed up to attend her first live video webcast.

I signed up for this, though I am not sure why I was asked to do it, I noticed there was not a privacy statement anyplace, nor anything to opt-out from future promotions. 

While I applaud Mrs. Clinton’s technological outreach by having a "true national conversation," I hope I will now not get inundated with contribution and support requests.