Daily Digest 8/6/07

The Web on the Candidates--Still Chewing on the Yearly Kos

* The bigfoots of the press were all in Chicago this past weekend for YearlyKos, and they churned out lots of coverage. So did the littlefoots of the web. Some highlights:

--The Veracifier team behind Josh Marshall's TPMtv churned out more than two dozen short video reports from the convention. (How is that humanly possible?) So far their clip of the candidates discussing lobbyist money during the Leadership Forum is showing signs of going viral, with more than 11,000 views as of this morning. I also enjoyed their post-debate interview with the NYTimes' Matt Bai, who served as one of the three moderators, who explains nicely his relationship to the political blogosphere. Though I was hoping for a clip of Bai in his jogging shorts running thru the hotel...

* PoliticsTV (full disclosure, our partners in techPresidentTV) were also all over the conference. If you weren't there, you can get nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the event, as they've got long verbatim segments from many of the major panels and breakouts. If you watch here, you can see why John Edwards connects so well with the DailyKos crowd (It was smart of the campaign to turn his room into a round, by the way. Edwards keeps facing towards the cameras, though, as he apologizes for his back being toward half the crowd "I'm too well-trained at this and the cameras are over there.")

* Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post laps the rest of the MSM's coverage today with a strong and nuanced look at the issue of diversity among progressive political bloggers. Read the whole thing. One of the people quoted in his piece, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, has a very interesting response to the issue here. Fascinating how the netroots community deals openly with its own shortcomings. (Heads-up: techPresident will soon be rolling out a new tracker looking at how people blogging in Spanish are relating to the campaign, and we're looking for someone to join our team who wants to cover that important topic.)

* The WashPost also carries Ron Fournier's report on the toughest question put to Clinton during her breakout session with the netroots, how she could defend her husband's administration's positions on the Defense of Marriage Act, NAFTA, the Telecom bill of 1996 and welfare reform. Paul Hogarth, the blogger who asked that question, writes that her answers "confirmed she is a ruthless triangulator who will take progressives for granted." OpenLeft co-founder Chris Bowers explains to Hogarth Clinton's difficulties with the netroots crowd: “It is really no mystery why Hillary Clinton’s current lead is not reflected in the netroots. The blogosphere is 60% male, and she does better with women. It’s 45% secular, and her voters are religious. Bloggers are younger, richer and better informed. In every single circumstance, it’s the worst demographic for Hillary Clinton.” Hmmm...how is it that a blogger got Chris Bowers' best quote of the event?

* The NYTimes' Kate Phillips has a strong round-up on the presidential forum's biggest flashpoint, the argument over lobbyist money. Note the punch from Howard Wolfson, Clinton's top campaign adviser, back at Obama for taking lobbyist money from his home state. Chris Cillizza of The Fix does a solid summary of the highs and lows of the forum, noting the same thing I did--how Obama managed to disappear for the first half of the 90 minute event, only to roar back in the second half.

* Finally, don't miss this post on the lack of sex on YearlyKos: "No Sex, Please, We're--Um, Liberal Bloggers."

The Candidates on the Web

* We should have noted this when it happened: three days ago, Ron Paul overtook Barack Obama on YouTube, in terms of total views of his videos there. Paul's numbers are continuing to climb at a healthy pace, and he's now at 2.86 million views, compared to Obama's 2.61 million. Paul's campaign is smartly trying to make the most of being in the YouTube Spotlight this week, posting not just one video--like the other candidates--but putting up a total of seven over the course of the week. We like what Paul says here about the Internet being "the political equalizer of the age."

In Case You Missed It

* Josh Levy gives his Yearly Kos post-mortem thoughts here and offers some random tidbits from the conference here. Watch out for when his head explodes. Also, see my "Sunday Morning Post-Kos Notes," and don't miss Patrick Ruffini and Mark Tapscott's valuable pushbacks on the notion that the Right has no online base.

* David All previews the use of user-generated content at the Republican debate.

* tP guest blogger Garrett M. Graff (the first blogger to get officially credentialled to cover the White House, by the way) argues that, judging from all the Howard Dean people riddled throughout the Democratic party and its presidential candidates, "Dean might have won the campaign" of 2004.

* Liveblogging from YearlyKos: "First Take on the Presidential Forum."