I just have to say how disappointed I am with Spitzer.

I voted for him, and I watched—and loved—his every move. He brought change to our state and stood tall as a respected beacon for New York State.

Hearing him speak was always moving. He pushed for equality. He pushed for a better world.

But he also pushed to rid the state of corruption. Ooops. And the rest is history…

I’m disappointed with the whole ordeal because of how great he was as Attorney General and then as Governor, but also because his actions rub off on Hillary—let’s be honest.

However, from a reputation management, ethics, accountability, and public relations perspective, his swift apology and resignation—the story broke on Monday and he resigned on Wednesday—shows that although he’s a swarmy cheat and liar, he had enough respect for those around him to just get out of the way. End of story, let’s move on, the people of New York no longer need him tarnishing the image of our state.

Just imagine if he let it drag on for weeks. The media would have continued to have a field day and the image of New York, its people, its politicians, and most importantly, of Hillary, would have been damaged further.

A big rule in public relations ethics is to take responsibility, remain accountable for your actions, and apologize as quickly as possible. As much as I am disappointed with him and feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back as a voter and strong supporter, I respect his stepping-down today.

He screwed up and it wasn’t worth him hanging around making things worse.

Ugh. Politicians…

Since Dean’s 2004 campaign blog and a snowball of agenda setting studies trying to prove it, this election is being influenced more than ever through abilities of the internet allowing true dialogue among candidates and the people. Yes…duh….of course. Well, here are a few examples:

Teaming up with ABC News, Facebook’s US Politics application lets users support a candidate on their profile and keep tabs on recent news and opinions of friends. ABC News poll results are given side by side the percent of Facebook users supporting each candidate, with Obama coming out on top with 58% of Facebook users, Hillary at 19%, and Edwards at 9%. C’mon Hill! On the republican side, Ron Paul leads with 38% of Facebook users, Romney at 16%, and Huckabee at 13%.

B.L. Ochman’s blog, which I absolutely love to read, points to Mike Arrington of TechCrunch being interviewed on ABC about their new site where readers can endorse candidates.

The popular social news site Digg has Digg the Candidates, where you can see what news stories the candidates are submitting and how many Digg friends they have. Obama comes out on top with 7,479 friends, Kucinich 6,667, and Hillary in 5th place with only 857 friends. On the republican side, Ron Paul is blowing everyone out of the water with 15,243 friends, Huckabee 1,001, and Romney and Giuliani in 4th and 5th place with only 606 and 552 friends, respectively.