PC Mag is reporting that Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo spoke Monday evening at the “Dive Into Media” conference hosted by All Things D. He spoke extensively on their censorship policy hoping to put the public at ease.

Costolo says that the new policy “will simply allow the company to transparently deal with valid government requests to remove certain content.” He goes on to say that the company didn’t go looking to implement this new policy, but rather it was a reactionary move.

He said that there has been “no change in our stance or attitude or policy with respect to content on Twitter.” The company believes that they are doing the right thing when it comes to dealing with issues operating in certain countries. He added that they need this policy to continue operating in certain countries, like Thailand.

He denied the rumors that the company implemented the policy to get into China.

“I don’t think the current environment in China is one which we think we could operate. We would love for people in China to be able to use Twitter the way we want them to be able to use it, which is speaking freely and letting their voices to be heard by as many people around the world as possible, we would love that.”

As for other topics, Costolo touched upon the idea that 2012 is going to be the year of the Twitter election. He points to the presidential candidates using Twitter and users of the social media site letting out a “collective groan” when Obama made that terrible spilled milk joke during his State of the Union address as examples.

He finally addressed Twitter’s potential IPO by saying that they won’t be going public just yet, instead focusing on the business at hand.

“We are going to be really patient about the way we build the business. We are trying to build a decades-long, lasting business.”

When directly asked about an IPO for Twitter in the future, he said, “I choose not to answer that question.”

The full interview is below for your viewing pleasure:

Twitter lit up in response:

There is a general timeline of Romney’s personal life, business and political careers, including such details as:

* June 1968 – While in France, Romney is injured in a serious car accident (caused by a drunk driver) that kills the wife of his mission’s leader; for a time, Romney’s family is under the impression he has been killed.

* Summer 2000 – Ann Romney’s multiple sclerosis goes into remission.

There is a bulleted list of highlights of Romney’s political positions, and subsequent changes, that the McCain campaign thought were worthy of having in hand. A few highlights:

* Romney health insurance plan expanded access to abortion, required Planned Parenthood representative on state panel.

* Romney was an independent until deciding to run for the Senate in 1994. He voted for Paul Tsongas in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary.

There is then a comprehensive rundown of Romney’s positions on many issues, including how his stances have changed over time, or even abruptly. These topics include:

* Abortion
* Stem Cell Research
* Gay Rights
* Second Amendment Issues
* Judicial Issues
* Taxes
* Bush Tax Cuts
* Jobs and Economy
* Iran
* Iraq
* Terrorism
* Campaign Finance Reform
* Immigration
* Health Care
* Energy and Environment
* Education
* and many others

Each issue is quite detailed and includes footnotes with references where applicable. The original apparently had links to videos and audio of Romney appearances before various audiences where his positions and statements changed, almost from town to town.

At 200 pages, it is quite a read. And, it provides lots of fodder for any opponent – GOP or Democrat – to use against Romney. Peruse through the file below.

McCain 2008 Oppo File

Perry himself (or his campaign staffer assigned to tweet for him) is usually pretty tame:

His campaign also has an account called the Perry Truth Team, which mixes things up a bit more:

Griffin’s own tweets are free to get more personal.:

Turns out, it was far less exciting.

The press release from Trojan Tree touting the newest release of “Obama Clock”, a giggling favorite in the conservative world, says that “a simple click on each countdown statistic calls forth a graphical depiction of the depressing trend in unemployment, gas prices, housing depreciation, and public debt over the entire Obama term.”

So, I popped over to the iTunes App Store to download the free version of the Obama Clock app to see what this was all about. The reviews of the app were not encouraging. They were divided between hardcore Republicans who approved of the spirit of the app and people who were disappointed with the app itself as less-than-functional or pandering for upgrades.

Upon firing it up, the first thing that happened was a pop-up ad that tried to up-sell me to the Deluxe version of the app for $1.99.

Turns out, you have to shell out that amount to actually see the “graphical depiction” they announced. After clicking [No Thanks], I landed on the main screen. Here there are statistics displayed that reportedly show:

* President Obama’s approval rating, as reported by Rasmussen Reports.

* Unemployment, from Dept. of Labor figures.

* Gas prices, US average.

* House prices, from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, averaging all transactions.

* Public debt. From Treasury.

* A countdown clock to Inauguration Day 2013

Todays numbers look like this:

The purpose of this app, according to their press release, is “to meaningfully influence the 2012 election”. Since it seems unlikely that a Democrat would care at all to buy the deluxe version of this app, and it seems to be mostly marketed toward the same Fox News viewers who bought it up last time, I am not sure how they intend to achieve any “meaningful” influence on the election. A preacher can’t fill a revival tent by firing up the choir.

Any serious person who wants to make the best informed decision about whom to vote for in November will look at the stories behind the numbers this “clock” displays. Where did those employment numbers come from? Who is doing anything about those numbers? Who is obstructing those efforts? What actually causes gasoline price increases? What were unemployment numbers under the previous Republican administration? How have they changed since then?

This looks like this is a cute little app designed to take money from die-hard Republicans. The information it displays is nothing you can’t find in a quick Google search for the rest of the country.

Yup. After a paltry showing at the Iowa caucus yesterday, the first casualty of the Republican primaries is Michele Bachmann. If only we’d barely knew ye.

Instead, you gave the world a plethora of source material that supplied endless jokes. In this respect, your presidential campaign was a roaring success. Bachmann Turner Overdriver. “The Queen of Rage.” The odd Wonder Woman component to an increasingly weird Republican-inspired Elseworlds version of The Justice League. The self-applied Iron Lady (although I doubt you know that’s not a reference to the Iron Man movies). Comedians will surely miss your contribution to the reality show circus that is the electoral process of deciding the President of the United States. And so, as a parting gift, like a lost bouquet dropped upon the shore to be swept out to see by the spring tide, I present to you some of the more amusing tweets reacting to Bachmann’s exit. Enjoy.

Due to the breakneck recycle speed of the political news cycle, trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of politics can be nauseating. You’re probably always going to be me missing something somewhere. However aggregating your own collection of news sources doesn’t have to be so stupefying since Google has made it a little easier for voters and otherwise interested parties to attempt to stay abreast of the latest news concerning topics, candidates, and election results. Google Politics & Elections, a new wing of the Google News service, collects articles covering breaking stories related to politics in the United States. With the service, readers can isolate topics to certain candidates (right now it’s a bunch of Republican primary candidates and the current POTUS, Barack Obama) as well as issues related to categories like the economy, social issues, and healthcare. From the post on Google’s official blog:

The site enables voters, journalists and campaigns to quickly sort through election info by popularity, race or issues. People can also check out the Trends Dashboard to take the web’s real-time political pulse by comparing candidates’ YouTube video views, search traffic and Google News mentions. Campaign staffers, advocates and everyday citizens can utilize our tools and features to reach, engage and inspire voters.

What might be most interesting for anyone who makes a hobby out of political speculation there is a function on the Politics & Elections homepage where you can track trends related to each specific candidate. For instance, given the latest surge of Rick Santorum out of the bowels of obscurity and into a legitimate third place (the fact that third place is now a consummation devoutly to be wished is kind of absurd, really), readers can actually see the rise in Google News Mentions of Santorum in the past week. It’s a fun tool as an observer, but given how tumultuous this primary cycle has been for all Republican candidates I wouldn’t recommend placing any bets on the reliability of any search trends as proof of sustainable electability.

The Google Politics & Elections also employs the Hangouts tools for journalists who are personally covering the election, perhaps as an effort to promote sodality and collaboration but I anticipate it will most likely be used as an online watering hole where everybody commiserates and decompresses. You can add the Politics & Elections tool to your Google+ account, as well, if you’re interested in participating or watching any of the activity in the Hangouts. Additionally, you can follow news stories as they develop by adding this group to your Circles. The news service will also cover international politics as well as the home-grown brews but given that we are officially in the election year, expect most of the news to be dominated by the election of the next POTUS.

Since today kicks off the election of the Republican primaries with the Iowa caucus, following these services might be a good idea if any of you are hoping to stay informed as the results start to come in about which candidate will claim victory in Iowa this evening.

The study compares the tone of the discussion on presidential candidates across Twitter, blogs, and mainstream news outlets. Pew’s data shows that Twitter has been overwhelmingly negative in tone towards Republican candidate Rick Perry and President Obama while only going slightly less harsh on Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (I guess not all of those Twitter followers for Gingrich are there to offer support). Compared to blogs and mainstream news, Twitter was a lot less neutral in how tweets discussed the candidates.

This probably isn’t a complete surprise if you’re a follower of several politically-inclined commenters, especially if you’ve followed trends like #tweetthepress, the trend that typically included ridiculing comments from people while watching the Republican presidential debates. From the study’s analysis:

One distinguishing factor about the campaign discourse on Twitter is that it is more intensely opinionated, and less neutral, than in both blogs and news. Tweets contain a smaller percentage of statements about candidates that are simply factual in nature without reflecting positively or negatively on a candidate.

Finally the new study found that the candidate conversation on Twitter is tremendously active-indeed the number of statements about candidates on Twitter vastly outnumber those offered in blogs by a factor of more than 9 to 1.

One telling detail about the Twitterscape’s discussion on the candidates is that, were everybody’s votes to be cast exclusively through Twitter, we’d all have to get used to saying President Paul after next November:

And in that campaign discussion on Twitter, one candidate has fared better than anyone else. Congressman Ron Paul has enjoyed the most favorable tone on Twitter of all candidates examined. From May through November, fully 55% of the assertions about the Texas Republican on Twitter have been positive-the highest of any candidate-while 15% have been negative-the lowest percentage of any candidate. That is a differential for Paul of 40 points on the positive side.

Paul is also the most favorably discussed candidate in blogs. While he trails significantly in the polls, and has received less coverage than every Republican candidate except Rick Santorum from news outlets, Paul seems to have struck a chord with some cohort in social media.

Paul’s expanse of neutrality in the mainstream media may re-enforce the opinion of many of his supporters that, at least in this case, neutral simply indicates that he isn’t getting any coverage. Additionally, the study does suggest that, yes, The Newtation is definitely happening right now given Gingrich saw his first week of more positive reviews on Twitter than negative in the week of October 24th.

While President Obama has been getting a rough go of it on Twitter with his “negative evaluations on Twitter outweighed his positive ones by 3-1,” Pew points out that he hasn’t received quite as harsh of an evaluation as his Republican cohorts have been dealt. Still, as with just about everything in this election cycle, these results can hardly be seen as predictive of which candidate the Republican voters will choose to run against Obama since just about every candidate this year has enjoyed the limelight of popularity and then disappeared into a dry well of near-obscurity. What you can count on, though, is that no matter what happens people will most likely continue to vent and complain via Twitter.

Unless it’s about Ron Paul.

While at the Blogworld Expo in L.A. WebProNews caught up with Hugh Hewitt, of the Hugh Hewitt Show, and he shared his thoughts on social media, pertaining to elections, and the forthcoming Republican candidate nomination:

“We’re coming into the home stretch here with the Republican nominating process, even though we haven’t cast one vote. That means we tend to make our minds up much earlier than we used to and the Republican electorate is settling down to what I believe will be a Mitt Romney nomination. But, there is still an outside chance that Rick Perry can catch him. He’s got a lot of money and a lot of experience.

It’s a Romney / Perry race. If I had to bet the house, and I don’t thank goodness, it would be on Romney”

It’s no secret that social media played a huge role in the 2008 Presidential race, but what role will it play in next years? Hewitt states that, President Obama had an enormous advantage in 2008 and he ran rings around John McCain. John McCain was not an early adapter of anything… except courage. That’s not enough in a social media world. He goes on to say:

“If you look at team Romney they have assembled the best and brightest minds of the center / right of social media. A lot of people who are very experienced in driving a message below the old media horizon.

It’s very active, and it’s very netted up and you will find at least a match when it comes to ability and performance and probably a lot more sophistication. It helps to be in the opposition. The reason that team Obama was so good is they were all in the wilderness they did not except campaign. Republicans were governing. Now they have that problem and something to defend. That new media energy is on the right, and that will alway shift. The administration party will be behind the curve.”

The 2012 Presidential race will be interesting to watch and see how it plays out, and what new roles social media plays.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

"U.S. users over age 18 will see a message at the top of their Facebook News Feed reminding them that it is Election Day and to go vote. The Facebook News Feed message will also contain a link to the Facebook Polling Place Locator, an application that lets users find out where they can vote," he said. "The app was developed with data from the non-partisan Voting Information Project  and was built by the app developer Involver."

Facebook users over 18 will be able to click an "I Voted" button and post a story to their wall. This will appear in their friends’ newsfeeds, hopefully encouraging them to vote as well. Users will see the names and faces of friends who voted as well. 

"Additionally, a real-time counter will show the number of people in the United States who clicked the ‘I Voted’ button," said Noyes. "In 2008, more than 5.4 million people clicked the "I Voted" button and we are excited to see how many users participate this year."

Facebook’s U.S. Politics page (introduced earlier this year) will serve as a hub for election info throughout the day.  

ABC News and Facebook will also broadcast a live town hall starting at 7 p.m. ET, anchored by ABC News correspondent David Muir, Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, and ASU student Natalie Podgorski. The livestream will be available on a special ABC News/Facebook town hall application on Facebook.com/ABCNews and Facebook.com/USpolitics.