The Democratic National Committee on Monday launched a website that allows the general public to view, analyze, and research John McCain’s positions, statements, and other public information.

McCainPedia.org is described as

McCainpedia.org is a wiki run by the DNC’s Research, Communications, and Internet teams. The goal is to centralize research material, allowing the general public to use it as they see fit.

The site is in a wiki format, yet is in a read-only mode, meaning that users of the site can only read the information there, they cannot add or edit information like is typical of most wiki-related sites.

“This allows us to fully validate all of the information that appears, ensuring accuracy and reliability,” the “About” section of the site says. Instead, the site is “run by the DNC’s Research, Communications, and Internet teams.”

DNC Chairman Howard Dean recently stated that

McCainpedia would empower “millions of people to review McCain’s inconsistencies and make up their own minds” about the senator’s record.

Clearly this is a DNC project that is built in the hopes that it will be able to shine a negative light on McCain. Users of the site will be able to see his past voting positions, policy positions, recent statements that he has made, etc.

This site is a direct competitor of the recently launched RNC site against Barack Obama, titled CanWeAsk.com. CanWeAsk.com allows voters to submit questions that they would like to ask Sen. Obama, but it does not provide detailed information on Obama like McCainPedia.org does.

Both are interesting projects that are likely to be gain leverage for both sides come November.