What’s Hot

Watching the presidential candidates talk about the issues you’re interested in. Cable TV network C-SPAN has recorded seemingly every utterance on the campaign trail, taping debates, news conferences and stemwinders by candidates of all stripes. On the Internet, you can search through the mountain of C-SPAN footage to find what the candidates have said about your pet issue, whether it’s abortion, tax simplification or genetically engineered fruit. Available on more than 30 Web sites, including Yahoo Politics (https://politics.yahoo.com), the searches are powered by Virage Inc. technology that analyzes the closed captions and the candidates’ lip movements. Just type in a keyword or phrase--”fuzzy math,” for example--and a list of relevant excerpts appears. The candidates may still dance around your issues, but at least you’ll get to call the tune.

What’s Not

Watching campaign commercials. Had enough yet? Amazingly, you can watch commercials by George W. Bush, Al Gore, Harry Browne, Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader online, again courtesy of C-SPAN (https://www.c-span.org/campaign2000/advertising.asp). Of course, that raises the question--why would you want to?