The LA Times pits YouTube against MySpace in the effort to be the Meetup of the 2008 election:

“It’s almost like the ‘browser battle’ — which site is the new e-mail? Which is the new standard for how people communicate?” said Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org.

Credibility hangs in the balance as both sites seek to position themselves as more than one-trick ponies where users share passions for rock bands or post funny videos, said Josh Bernoff, a social-computing analyst at Forrester Research.

“Both MySpace and YouTube would like to establish themselves as serious political sites,” he said. “They want to be broader, more multidimensional.” . . .

Facebook.com also is playing a role: It established profile pages for each major candidate through which they can communicate with Facebook users. . . .

MySpace is quickly becoming a key player in online politics, said Micah L. Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.

“MySpace has become a virtual state fair, and every campaign has decided they are going to have a booth there — hopefully not too close to the bearded ladies and the strippers,” said Sifry, also co-editor of TechPresident.com, which tracks Internet use in the 2008 presidential race. “But the truth is, there isn’t going to be just one major hub.”

Uh, speaking of which, here’s a screenshot of one of Chris Dodd’s friends I spotted on MySpace the other day. With friends like these. . . .