Mashable's list of top US election resources, reminded me of some thoughts I had on the subject of politics and online when I was in the US last week. 

First, I was amazed how much media bandwidth the whole topic was already consuming, despite the election still being over twelve months away. Although the US does have many more elections to work through en route to the big one (in fact, as this site notes, Mr Bush's last day in the job is 20th January 2009).

Then I was interested in how the online element was simply there. It wasn't a clever gimmick to prove how connected they were. It was just there, like the 1-800 number and the rest of the obvious campaign tools.

In this regard the US is well ahead of the UK. In the UK most politicians still come across like they are looking for a spontaneous round of applause and a gold star, simply for being on the same page as their digitally aware electorate.

Of course, the UK's own election is now off the agenda for at least a year. Presumably when it comes, it will be the UK's first Election 2.0 and provide an artificial blip in awareness, fostered by a host of election themed social media initiatives.

Doubtless, somewhere in a parallel world unknown to me, the UK's political spin doctors are already working out their Election 2.0 scams.