Quick '08 Update

- Jonathan Lemonnier from AdAge reports on the rise in ad spending on alternative media. I'm sure Obama's Google buy helped show that politics is coming around to this trend, which we will touch on at our May 9th event here in DC. From the article:

Alternative advertising, including online, mobile, entertainment and digital out-of-home advertising, saw spending rise at a compounded annual growth rate 25.8% to $39.22 billion in 2007, accounting for 17.7% of all ad spending that year (compared with 7% of all ad spending in 2002), and grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 26.2% from 2002 to 2007.

Online and mobile advertising spending --including search and lead generation, online classifieds and displays, e-media, online video and rich media, internet yellow pages, consumer-generated ads, and mobile advertising -- reached $29.94 billion in 2007 (up 29.1% compared with 2006), a compounded annual growth rate of 31.4% over the 2002-2007 period.

- Meghan McCain, daughter of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and writer of McCainBlogette.com, the clever blog which happens to be a guilty pleasure of mine, was featured in two interesting pieces. GQ's Greg Vais was first with "Raising McCain"; and the Washington Post's Libby Copeland followed suit with "Fortunate Daughter".

- Meanwhile, John McCain attempted to separate himself from the President ever so slightly in a foreign policy address delivered yesterday in Los Angeles, CA. Jonathan Martin from The Politico has more.

- Between John Murtha's laudatory remarks the other day and her packed fundraiser last night at Constitution Hall, Hillary Clinton is not letting up. Yesterday she gave a speech on retirement security and today she just wrapped up a speech on rebuilding the middle class in Raleigh, NC. As Susan Davis from the WSJ blog Washington Wire shows, her donors, who happen to be major Democratic Party donors, aren't letting up either.

- Fresh off potentially good news (here and here) from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Barack Obama is delivering a major economic speech at Cooper Union in New York City. Obama's speech comes after he has criticized McCain numerous times for his lack of attention to the economy. (View a PDF of the entire WSJ/NBC News poll here. Also be sure to check out Josh Marshall on the poll's legitimacy in addressing the Wright remarks.)

- Finally, I'm sorry I didn't touch on this in Tuesday's update, but in a Washington Post piece called "The Next President's Plan...", advisers from the campaigns argue what their candidate would do to turn the economy around. Perhaps they are attempting to answer just criticism from folks like Mark Halperin and Simon who feel like the candidates could do a better job in talking about the economy. Update: Maggie has more in her post.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.