Clinton's got questions online

Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken to the Web.

The senator from New York, who recently announced plans to run for president online, is looking to the Web again to help her campaign. She recently posed a question on Yahoo answers asking the community for their views on health care.

She posed the question two days ago, and has garnered more than 34,000 answers so far. Even more astounding: most of the responses seem to be legitimate discussions of the issue, and not just partisan flame-throwing.

She's not the only candidate beefing up her Web presence; Illinois Senator Barack Obama through a video on his Web site.

Blog community response:

"I cannot think of another form of media which would allow the same kind of user interaction AND approachability that Yahoo Answers brings to the table. You won't find that on CNN, radio, townhall meetings or 99.9% of the Internet."
--Search Engine Journal

"The "cynical" view of this is that this is smart, even shrewd campaigning. A more generous view is that she is truly tapping the "wisdom of crowds" for ideas that she might ultimately integrate into her platform."
--Screenwerk

"Still, apart from the pure publicity value, and the street cred she gets for being down with the Web 2.0 kids, I would agree with Greg that there is definitely something interesting going on here. Where it will lead (if anywhere) remains to be seen. "
--Mathew Ingram