Home, originally uploaded by Rob Bluey.

Moments ago Sen. John McCain unveiled his new campaign website, JohnMcCain.com, featuring loads of information, lots of video and tools for bloggers to actively engage McCain supporters. The website is what you’d expect from the Republican frontrunner — and puts his competitors’ websites to shame.

I was one of four people to preview the new website this morning at McCain’s Arlington, Va., headquarters. Joining me were CNN’s Abbi Tatton, Townhall’s Matt Lewis and Internet consultant David All. While Matt, David and I found some areas of the new site lacking, there was consensus among us that McCain had set the bar very high for his competition.

My favorite part of the new website is the prominent video component on the homepage. I have my doubts about whether the campaign can produce enough video to keep people coming back to the site. But I was assured by eCampaign Director Christian Ferry that there would be plenty of material to choose from.

McCain’s site was described as a work in progress regarding social networking and Web 2.0 features, such as Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. Ferry said those components would be added at a later date. In the meantime, he said the eCampaign team is putting emphasis on the ability of users to create their own blogs and interact with McCain supporters using features built into the site. One part of the site is dubbed “McCainSpace.”

I’m certain there will be plenty of criticism about the new site given bloggers’ dislike for McCain. However, I view today’s meeting as another positive development in the campaign’s outreach to bloggers. Last week, senior McCain staff held a conference call with bloggers to discuss their strategy and listen to our feedback.

My major criticism is that McCain launched the new site on a Friday afternoon without any real reason to do so now other than a town hall meeting tomorrow in Iowa that will be streamed over the site. With a formal presidential announcement likely in the works, McCain probably would have been better off waiting to make a bigger splash. But I guess that’s the luxury of a frontrunner.