Life of mouse at stake in online election parody

A little white mouse risks being devoured by a hungry snake in an online parody of cutthroat American politics that went online Wednesday just hours before the US presidential debate. Snakeormouse.com invites visitors to cast ballots on whether the “MouseOn President” will be fed to the “Friends of the Sssssssnake President” when voting ends on Nov. 6 — the same day as the US elections. The satirical website features a live video stream of the two “candidates” as well as mock political platforms that suggest that the rodent represents President Barack Obama and the reptile his Republican rival Mitt Romney. “We thought there was a need to really poke fun at a lot of the marketing and persuasion tools being used nowadays” in political campaigns, said the website’s creator Andrew Loos, who runs a Los Angeles viral marketing firm. In early voting Wednesday, the mouse was leading the snake 54 to 46 percent — although, according to the website’s terms and conditions, orga- nizers reserve the right to modify the final outcome. Arab news