We've had some Obama Drama on the web this week. The Democratic contender's campaign has taken over Obama's MySpace page, which was created as a labor of love by Barack backer Joe Anthony in 2004 and grew to over 150,000 friends. After traffic to the site spiked in March, Anthony asked to be compensated for his time in managing all the friend requests. The campaign asked how much he wanted for the rights to the We’ve had some Obama Drama on the web this week. The Democratic contender’s campaign has taken over Obama’s MySpace page, which was created as a labor of love by Barack backer Joe Anthony in 2004 and grew to over 150,000 friends. After traffic to the site spiked in March, Anthony asked to be compensated for his time in managing all the friend requests. The campaign asked how much he wanted for the rights to the URL. When Anthony demanded $39K, the Obama-lamas pleaded poverty and asked MySpace to give them the URL.In an interview with MTV News, Anthony said: “After [asking] my consent [to turn over the page], they originally threatened to delete the profile, but they did say that they needed my consent for MySpace to take the profile from me. I said in clear language … [that] MySpace does not have my consent to take this profile,” Anthony explained on Wednesday. “And of course they did it, and that’s why we’re here. It’s not about the money, it’s not about anything else. They took this profile without my consent.” (Ironically, in 1993 MTV.com wrested control of its domain from one-time VeeJay Adam Curry, who’d registered it and built a site back when the Web was purely a geek’s playground.) Barack’s MySpace page is now the “official” Obama page, not Anthony’s. Anthony’s old MySpace page, which no longer features much information about Barack but still claims 151,000 close personal friends, can be found here. Meanwhile, other Barack pages seem to be popping up all over MySpace. There’s the United for Obama page (which has 4 friends and looks suspiciously like a scam) and the “Barack Obamaca” page, which boasts more than 20,000 friends, none of whom apparently know how to spell the man’s name. My favorite is Barack Lobster, which features the candidate as crustacean and a soundtrack by the B-52’s. There’s a word for all this, and it starts with “cluster.” (I can’t fill in the second syllable — this is after all a Family Blog.) In one short week the Obama-lamas have ticked off some of their biggest supporters in the blogosphere and made themselves look like idiots. Anthony doesn’t come off too well either. Maybe $39,000 was a lot to ask; on the other hand, that works out to about a quarter per supporter — and probably a week’s pay for a top-notch political pollster. In the long run, though, this could end up costing Barack’s campaign a whole lot more. Do you even care if a candidate has a page on MySpace? Let me know by posting comments below or dropping me an email. (And no, I won’t charge you $39K to read them.) Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business