Facebook "friends" could be pivotal in presidential race

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old L.J. Tsunis has some advice for his favorite U.S. presidential candidate: start hanging out on Facebook already.

"Rudy Giuliani is absolutely making a big mistake by not being active on Facebook," Tsunis told Reuters in a message posted through the popular social-networking site.

"Millions of votes could be had on here that may swing the election one way or the other."

Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and the Republican front-runner in many opinion polls, is the only candidate for the November 2008 presidential race who has not gotten the message.

Every other major player has set up shop on the site, which draws millions of predominantly young users looking to flirt, make friends and goof off.

Candidates see social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace as tools to win over young voters who are difficult to reach through more traditional campaigning.

In this early popularity contest, Sen. Barack Obama is the clear favorite so far -- the Illinois Democrat even gained the support on Facebook, however briefly, of Giuliani's Harvard-bound daughter, Caroline.

Obama has drawn nearly twice as many online "friends" who link to his profile than any other candidate, and many of them have become volunteers for the campaign.

The Obama campaign has also built its own social-networking site, my.barackobama.com, which it credits for boosting fund-raising and attendance at rallies.

"It's a very, very useful way to organize volunteers," said Obama youth coordinator Hans Riemer.

Others are taking notice.

"Barack Obama is not going to lose a single voter from here on out. People are with him through the end of this thing," said David All, a Republican consultant who has urged his party to devote more attention to new technologies.

The Internet has played an ever-growing role in presidential races since 1996, when Republican candidate Bob Dole gave out the wrong address for his Web site during a debate with Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Republican John McCain pioneered online fund-raising in the 2000 race, and in 2004 Howard Dean rode the blogosphere to the front of the Democratic field before fizzling out.

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