AOL has launched Hot Seat, a syndicated online political widget on AOL News. Hot Seat features daily political poll questions from some of the biggest political bloggers on the Internet, including The Huffington Post, Time’s Swampland, Slate, The Politico, Crooks & Liars, Power Line and Captain’s Quarters. The questions address current political issues and events as a way to stimulate a dialogue between voters, pundits and politicians. “Hot Seat†also features responses from major presidential candidates to specific questions posed to them by bloggers and pundits.
Hot Seat will be displayed on all AOL News, Elections and Political Machine pages as well as participating sites outside the AOL network. The Hot Seat widget showcases real-time poll question results on both a national and state-by-state level, while letting users share and discuss their views with users of various sites. Through “Hot Seat,†candidates will be given an opportunity to respond to questions and comment on the results of the various polls while providing an outlet that allows the public to become deeply engaged and integrated in the political blogosphere.
In addition to Hot Seat, AOL will provide comprehensive coverage of the campaigns. AOL’s Political Machine blog provides political coverage that combines blog posts from academics, journalists and the voting public. In the coming months, election coverage will also feature a Straw Poll that will house weekly candidate polls with real-time results and track the races for both parties. General election results will include additional local information, including county data, interactive maps and mobile distributions.
Originally posted on December 19, 2007 @ 11:11 am