A very quick comment on the meaning of yesterday's special election in Massachusetts, in terms of the role of technology in changing politics:

First, I couldn't agree more with what Nancy wrote here yesterday:

Andrew Rasiej and I are in Cambridge, MA today and tomorrow at the Berkman Center's "Internet Politics 2008" conference. Several techPresident contributors are here, including Gene K., Ari M., Garrett G., Chris R, and David A. and tons of friends and colleagues. The conference is semi-open in the sense that we are allowed to blog about it under the "Chatham House rule," which means that we're not supposed to name people (hence my semi-cryptic references), but that we're free to use the information shared, unless someone says something is completely off the record. Some of the conversations are being recorded and will be eventually posted to the Berkman website, however. So, consider yourself forewarned, I'm somewhat handcuffed here...

In her non-concession speech, Hillary asks for input - but is it just to stall? Or a fundraising ploy? And did Peter Daou warn her about what Chris "Google Bomb" Bowers can do with an open invite like that?

PLUS: Did Hillary have her event 50 feeut underground to duck Obama's cellphone call???

So now the Clinton campaign is walking back has clarified its post-PA fundraising numbers (and I'm clarifying my initial post as well). As I noted yesterday, the campaign's finance co-chair Hassan Nemazee left the distinct impression with both the Washington Post and Business Week that the campaign had somehow pulled in more than $10 million "overnight" from Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary. Today's New York Times and Washington Post both take those claims as achievements, but Peter Daou, the campaign's internet director, makes clear that they haven't quite made it there yet $10M was a projection that the campaign put out midday and hit sometime last night. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has probably pulled in $6.5 million since Tuesday, and most of that was before it started an email push in response to Clinton's claims.

A new song about McCain makes our ears bleed; once again, OpenLeft asks its readers if it should endorse; the YouTube election 2.0; an Obama video is Obama-sistable; Peter Daou defends Hillary against three myths about the race; Obama has more Twitter followers than anyone (take that, Scoble!); and CafePress charts the most popular candidates showing up on t-shirts.

As I flew home on Saturday from YearlyKos, I felt equally elated and exhausted from three days of near-constant interaction with so many bloggers, activists, journalists, campaign operatives and techno-politicos. The panels I attended were usually good and sometimes illuminating, the food was so-so, the the long distances between panels got old quick (at first I told Micah that the complainers were wimps; I soon found my own inner wimp), and Presidential forums and breakout sessions added glamour to the whole event.

And it's always a good feeling to actually see, in the flesh, folks with whom I spend so much time with on email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Status updates on Facebook and Twitter:g ood fun. Status updates in the form of actual conversations: priceless.

Did Hillary Clinton just bug out of the YearlyKos presidential candidates' breakout sessions on Saturday, seriously alienating many of the Democratic activists attending, or was she never in in the first place? A small thing, perhaps, but it may portend a flare-up in relations between the netroots and the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

What happened to Hillary Clinton's friends on MySpace.com? A day ago, she had about 22,000; now her site lists only 12,177. For a couple of hours today, if you tried to go to http://www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton2008, you saw this: