What a great idea — why did I not think of it? …probably because I’m way to busy.

TechPresident, a blog dedicated to tracking how the candidates are using the web, and how the web is using them, has a page showing a line chart with the amount of MySpace “Friends” each candidate has for both parties.

The following charts show each Democratic and Republican candidates’ number of MySpace friends, updated daily.

To be clear, the dynamics of MySpace usage are quite different than the dynamics of real world voting, so a high number of MySpace friends should not be interpreted as a higher probability of winning an election. It probably just means the candidate is resonating better at the “pop-culture” level. That is not to say that MySpace and other Social Network sites aren’t good tools — they can be very effective in spreading a candidates message, and can be the seeds to increased earned media.

There is one group that is going to come out winning regardless of who wins this coming election — the social networking websites. Just a few weeks ago, Mitt Romney’s staff set him up with a Facebook profile. As a result of that, you could almost hear the “inside-the-beltway” buzz on Facebook as everyone and their brother signed up for a Facebook profile and joined up this or that group. My employer, Townhall.com, took the opportunity to set up a Facebook profile, and the activity was real high on Facebook for a few days. There was even rumors of a competition between certain conservative political websites, and the amount of Facebook friends.

The winner is — Facebook!!