Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations. Our web guide is VOA's Art Chimes.
This week, it's a website for people who think that foreign policy issues are an important part of a U.S. presidential campaign. At the Council on Foreign Relations, they thought the news media wasn't giving enough attention to the candidates' views on international affairs, so they started our Website of the Week, Campaign 2008.
MORAN: "What we hoped to do is to take what was being said on the hustings [on the campaign trail], what candidates have said in the past, and see if we can put together a website that really focused on the international debate that's going on in the campaign."
Michael Moran is executive editor of Campaign 2008, where one of the most useful features is called Issue Tracker. It's a way to focus on one issue at a time, and compare what each candidate has said on topics ranging from immigration to nuclear proliferation.
MORAN: "For instance, something we call the candidates on India. It's a compendium of statements by the various candidates on U.S. ties with India. We have similar ones for Russia, for Africa, for Cuba, for Venezuela. So this really gives you the opportunity to drill down and find out where exactly these candidates stand on some of these issues."
CFR's Campaign 2008 features a blog so you can keep up on the daily flow of international issue-related comments from the candidates.
In addition to aggregating information from other sources, the site features some unique content, such as articles by experts at the Council on Foreign Relations' own think tank and 4000-word essays written by the candidates for its prestigious journal, Foreign Affairs.
MORAN: "And those are really unique documents that set forth from each candidate of what their foreign policy would be like as soon as they got into office."
All this and podcasts, too, at the Council on Foreign Relations' Campaign 2008. It's at cfr.org/campaign2008, or get the link from our site, voanews.com.