I was browsing friends in MySpace for the candidate I currently work for and every so often I come across rather shady folks who'd like to be our friend.  So, when this occurs I click on the page and check out who else has "friended" them.  I've declined various "adult pages" including Larry Flynt (no idea if it was official) and some porn stars (at least I assume they were).

Here's two that we denied but it's always interesting to see who else accepts their invitation.

Example 1: Now this is obviously an adult site ad, but look at the top friends.  Something about it makes me giggle.

Example 2: A mock site about how MySpace is full of politicians, predators, and politician/predators.  Seems a lot of the presidential candidates want to get in on this fun time.

I'm sure there are some that have slipped by me as I've gone over the thousands of friend requests and we'll see how long it takes before some of the friends are deleted.

The impact of who your "friends are" at this point remains unknown.  MySpace's measure of impact in the electoral process is still up in the air (other than the media stories it generates as to who has the most friends, or who took over what page).  As a channel to reach out to the masses you're limited to comments and bulletins, and 1on1 emails.  The typical media choices such as video and pics exist.  The two way communication is limited except for some fun mashup opportunities with other existing online programs.  Group interaction is poor and consists of bulletins and comments.

The power of MySpace is the ability to place widgets on other members pages and turn their corner of the internets into your personal billboard in an attempt to reach out to and convert others you might have not otherwise connected with.  The endorsement by friends adds a level of authenticity that might be able to break through an otherwise unreachable individual.

Overall MySpace and other networks like Facebook are fledgling tools in the political medium and we'll see if a magic formula is discovered that can finally merge the online community efforts and real world results.

Update: MyDD later in the day posted to the Predator MySpace page.  Obama soonn after pulled their friend status.  Both profiles as of today have been removed from MySpace.