Bush campaign site blocks traffic from abroad

The folks in charge of the U.S. president’s re-election campaign seem to have forgotten that the first two letters of WWW stand for “world wide.”

Just days before the presidential election, the Bush campaign’s official Web site, GeorgeWBush.com, is turning away Web traffic from abroad. The virtual blockade began Monday, according to Internet traffic analysis company Netcraft.

The site appears to be rejecting visitors from most points outside the United States, while allowing access from most U.S. locations and Canada, according to Netcraft, which is based in Bath, England. The company monitors Web site response times from numerous locations around the globe, including New York; London; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Sydney, Australia.

An attempt by a CNET News.com reader in the Netherlands to access the site brought up an “Error 403 Forbidden” page with the message: “Access Denied: You don’t have permission to access ‘http://www.georgewbush.com/’ on this server.”

Representatives at the Bush campaign office did not immediately return calls for comment. (source)