Clay Shirky: “Clinton used mailing lists in ’92, and every election since then — famously Howard Dean to Barack Obama — has involved considerably more imaginative use of social media. And this election has not. I’ve been quite surprised by that.”

“I had a student looking at Super PACs a while ago, and we said, ‘Let’s try and find out what the Super PACs’ social media strategy is.’ As she came back about 10 days later, she said, ‘I think I know what the Super PAC’s social media strategy is: Don’t use it.’ That’s exactly the whole point of being a Super PAC, to be able to spend unlimited money on the kind of media where no one has the right or the ability to respond, and to minimize transparency. This election feels to me, right now, more Nixon-Kennedy than Obama-McCain because television has become the tool of choice for the source of unlimited fundraising. Politicians like television better; nobody gets to yell back to you if you’re yelling on TV.”

Peggy Noonan: “Actually, it’s amazing that during an existential crisis — a crisis that is economic, cultural and political, and that bears on our role and purpose in the world — both candidates for our highest office have felt free to be so… well, insubstantial. Neither Mr. Romney nor Mr. Obama has caught hold of the overall meaning of his candidacy, Mr. Romney because so far he’s chosen not to, and Mr. Obama because he’s tried and failed.”

Charlie Cook: “A little more than four months out from the election, the tides seem about as neutral as they can be. Both parties have surprisingly comparable levels of exposure, largely because of redistricting. The relatively calm surface of this year’s waters belies a lot of offsetting tumult and change underneath. But for House Republicans, who hold a 25-seat majority, a status quo election producing minimal net change would be good news.”

“Republicans would need to mess up pretty badly to lose their House majority in the near future.”

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, “invested in a series of
firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to
new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India,” the Washington Post reports.

“During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in
running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies
that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United
States to overseas call centers and factories making computer
components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.”

More details: “Bain played several roles in helping these
outsourcing companies, such as investing venture capital so they could
grow and providing management and strategic business advice as they
navigated this rapidly developing field.”

Obama pollster Joel Benenson tells Greg Sargent that coverage of “meaningless daily polling” distracts from coverage of the actual policy differences between the two presidential candidates.

Said Benenson: “The only thing that’s bouncing around are the public polls. The electorate doesn’t bounce around like that. It’s more static than the noise in all these polls. If you watch the electorate over time, they don’t jump up and down. This is a process.”

He added: “Movement tends to come in small increments, and people ought to be mindful of that. We had 45 different polls over a 42 day period. It’s an industry unto itself.”

Mitt Romney up with state-specific versions of his “First 100 Days” ads in Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, and North Carolina.

They’re all similar in advocating the repeal of President Obama’s health care law, with the exception of the Ohio ad which doesn’t mention ObamaCare at all.

A new Garfield Institute poll of young voters aged 18-29 finds they prefer President Obama over Mitt Romney, 50% to 37%, but that Obama’s support has slipped significantly from the levels the president enjoyed in the 2008 presidential race.

A new Latino Decisions poll shows President Obama way ahead of Mitt Romney among Latino voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia.

“In Florida, the poll found Obama leading Romney by a margin of 53% to 37%, a slight increase from a 50% to 40% lead Obama held over Romney in a January 2012 Latino Decisions/Univision News poll in Florida. In the five states combined Obama lead Romney 63% to 27%, however in southwestern battlegrounds of Arizona, Colorado and Nevada Obama performed even better. In Arizona Obama received 74% to 18% for Romney, in Colorado he was favored by 70% to 22% and in Nevada 69% to 20%. In Virginia, Obama lead 59% to 28% over Romney among Latino registered voters.”

Alex Burns notes Obama “won the Latino vote by 36 points nationally in 2008, which is the
same margin he leads Romney overall across these five swing states.”

As reported earlier this week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) was formally elected the next president of Purdue University.

The Indianapolis Star notes Daniels said that “he would recuse himself of any activities of partisan activity or political commentary. Last January, Daniels gave the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.”

A new Pew Research poll mirrors two national polls cited earlier and shows a very close presidential race with President Obama just ahead of Mitt Romney, 50% to 46%.

Key findinds: “The slide in economic optimism points to Romney’s most important advantage in the race. Nearly half of registered voters (49%) say Romney would do the best job of improving economic conditions, compared with 41% who favor Obama. Yet Romney trails Obama by wide margins on connecting well with ordinary people, honesty and truthfulness, consistency, displaying good judgment and several other personal dimensions.”