Likes: Ice cream, war on terror

WASHINGTON -- Last week, on a trip to the West Coast, Senator John F. Kerry insisted on visiting the Palo Alto headquarters of Facebook.com, the website that lets users set up online profiles featuring information such as their hometowns, favorite films, and whom they've been hanging out with lately.

Looking out of place in a suit and tie, Kerry, 62, shook hands and posed for pictures with the site's young, casually dressed staff, though he missed meeting the company's 22-year-old founder and chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, who was traveling. Photographs of the event were posted on Facebook the next day.

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, is looking to catch the next wave in cybercampaigning: Starting in September, Facebook will begin selling advertising space to politicians for an undisclosed fee, providing candidates a chance to connect with its nearly 9 million registered users, the vast majority in their teens and 20s.

Facebook leaders say their plan is to provide a forum for politicians of all stripes to reach one of the most sought-after demographics -- young people who have turned away from television and newspapers. And the site -- by one measure the seventh most popular in the United States -- has already experienced overwhelming demand from candidates of both parties, though a spokeswoman would not name names.

To reach a young audience, however, candidates may have to shed their middle-aged milieu and communicate in the proper Facebook manner. That means listing turn-ons and turnoffs, posting candid photos, and ``friending" college students across the country by listing them on the site.

``It feels awesome to have you as a facebook friend!" wrote one University of Tampa student on the ``wall" of Senator Evan Bayh's Facebook page. Bayh, an Indiana Democrat and 2008 presidential hopeful, jumped the queue and started his own page months before the political advertisements officially begin.

The 50-year-old senator's listed interests include ``Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream," ``Apple Pie," and ``Football" -- not to mention ``War on Terror."

A spokesman for Bayh's All-America PAC, which runs the profile, said a staff member oversees all content on the page. ``It's updated pretty regularly," the spokesman, Jonathan Kott, said. ``The senator feels it's a way for him to reach out to college students."

It's unclear whether Bayh's membership in the ``I Get All My News From `The Daily Show' " group -- or the fact that he lists his favorite animal as ``Party" -- will translate into concrete support from younger constituents, who usually use Facebook to simply check up on a long-lost buddy or to get the scoop on that cute classmate from lecture.

But Kerry and other politicians are betting that the ability to create and communicate with a large online voter base could lead to higher numbers at the polls this November.

Politicians who purchase advertising space on the site will be able to send mass messages to supporters and expand on the online fund-raising and recruiting efforts spearheaded by Howard Dean's 2004 presidential run, when the former Vermont governor raised millions in web-based donations and recruited volunteers from around the country.

``I would have loved to have these social-networking tools back then," said Joe Trippi, who ran Dean's campaign. ``All of these social-networking tools are empowering this younger generation to get involved in a way that no other generations have."

Still, Trippi warned that advertising on the Internet is less effective than people-driven movements. ``I think it's a lot more powerful when someone on Facebook starts that community themselves for the candidate, than if the candidate tries to buy into a community," he added.

And some observers say that for politicians still feeling out the unfamiliar terrain of Facebook -- which launched only 2 1/2 years ago -- the potential for online embarrassment is dangerously high.

``It's another example of the desperation and complete cluelessness they have about reaching voters under the age of 40," said Alex Pareene , who is 21 and edits the popular political gossip blog Wonkette.

``There's so much potential for things to not work out correctly," Pareene said. ``You could make friends with a candidate and post embarrassing pictures and tag them with that guy's name. The Internet is nothing but people trying to screw things up."

The generation gap may not help. Chris Lehane, a veteran Democratic operative, likened a politician's presence on Facebook to the ``actor playing an athlete on TV who's never played the sport."

``It's abundantly transparent that they're trying to be cool," said Lehane, who briefly worked for Kerry's presidential campaign. ``But they basically reinforce that they're actually the antithesis of cool."

Indeed, in trying to appear hip to younger voters, politicians who venture onto Facebook may face the ``Colbert" conundrum. Several members of Congress, including US Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, have appeared recently on Comedy Central's popular ``Colbert Report" -- sometimes at the urging of their younger staff members -- only to be subjected to a humiliating dressing-down at the hands of Stephen Colbert, the show's faux-smarmy host.

``Politicians want hipness and the authenticity of the [youth] base," said Matthew Hindman, a professor at Arizona State University who studies new media. ``But they don't want to lose control of their message" -- a distinct possibility given Facebook's interactive nature.

For its part, Facebook insists its users are a politically astute bunch. ``There are nine groups on Facebook that discuss the death penalty," said Melanie Deitch , Facebook's director of marketing. ``You have an educated user base that is discussing some important issues about our society. It's not about getting the latest music."

Deitch said an internal poll indicated that more than half of Facebook users said they were more likely to vote for a candidate ``if they could learn about that candidate on Facebook."

And the national leaders of student political groups said they thought Facebook would be a useful tool to attract younger voters.

``At the campus level, College Republicans use Facebook often times in lieu of having meetings in a classroom," said Paul Gourley , national chairman of the College Republicans.

His Democratic counterpart agreed.

``Young people and college students use Facebook as a means of communication, keeping up with friends, networking," said Lauren Wolfe , president of College Democrats of America. ``I know many, many people who are on there multiple times a day."

The site's popularity with students hasn't always been a boon for politicians, especially when their own children get involved. Embarrassing photos of congressional offspring, culled from their Facebook pages and usually involving alcohol of some kind, have recently popped up on Wonkette and in Roll Call's cheeky gossip column, Heard on the Hill.

In June, Wonkette noted that the Facebook page of Bryan Frist , son of Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, described the Princeton freshman as ``an American by Gods Amazing Grace. Lets bomb some people." And the site has a running gag involving a presidential nephew, Pierce Bush, a University of Texas student who appears in Facebook photos clutching a bottle of Bud Light and grinning beside a man wearing devil horns.

Facebook may end up playing a role in this campaign season, but Wonkette's editor suggested that it could ultimately prove more important a decade down the road.

Said Pareene: ``A good 10, 15 years from now, if the Internet is well archived, I think there's gonna be a lot of really great material on people running for office."