Puh-leeeeeze.

Up late last night, I noticed that S4M’s website had just added a hit counter. Interesting, I thought, that a site that had been up for (at least) two years should have almost exactly the number of hits that the MPP’s site had over about a month and a half: just over 12,000.

That was about 3:00 am. Back in Ann Arbor this afternoon, things have changed: now they’re up on us by about 8,000 visits. A look at their page’s code indicates they’re probably using a server-side counter (it’s impossible to tell exactly what program). Why are they using a private hit counter that resides on their own webserver? It couldn’t be that they want the ability to “add” visitors, is it? Of course not — I’m sure 8,000 people working the third shift Saturday night have taken a newfound interest in Students 4 Michigan.

Has this campaign strategy become pathetic yet? Do you want to vote for a guy or girl whose response to an unpopular campaign platform is to fake 8,000 new visitors to his or her website?