Updated: Dennis Kucinich Has Come to Second Life

Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich has opened headquarters in Second Life. Newt Gingrich came in world to speak about his views for the future, but other candidates' strategists have passed on virtual worlds in favor of other new media. Kucinich, though is ready to experiment with island life:

When I checked a little bit ago, the sim only had a traffic rating of 8, but there's also no link to the site from the main campaign's website. I've contacted the owner to see if it's an official entrance to Second Life--if nothing else, the YouTube video was posted by the official group.

Update: Chad Ely, Director of Multimedia for the Kucinich campaign, has confirmed that the Second Life site is an official entrance by Kucinich and details are expected to be released tomorrow.

When asked why he entered into Second Life when other candidates were staying away, Ely said it's pure social networking.

"We do them all," said Ely. "Any and all ways we can get out to the people and let them know about Dennis Kucinich. That's all we have to do. He's got all the other candidates beat on the issues, so his stand on the issues will do the job for us."

Other politicians in Second Life have met with griefing issues or unwelcome neighbors. While Ely says he'll just have to see how the venture pans out, he's not particularly worried.

"There's been a lot of things the other candidates have done that haven't worked out for them, like being able to comment on YouTube pages, and we just haven't had that problem," Ely said. "There's a few people, Ron Paul supporters or Obama supporters, that try to go in and goof us a little bit, but they pretty much leave us alone. They know Dennis is a good guy, and we don't play those games."

Comments

[Samantha]

Dennis Kucinich is not the only candidate with a Second Life HQ. Mike Gravel has had one longer. You can get the SLurl on his website: http://www.gravel2008.us. His HQ was built by Astrophysicist McCallister.

[NPR]

His tagline "Strength through Peace" is from the latin ""Armis Exposcere Pacem" which also means "Peace through force of arms"..

Possibly not the best choice, given recent foreign policy..