The Web on the Candidates

• YouTube’s YouChoose ‘08 channel, which has been steadily plugging the candidates’ videos for the last year, has undergone a facelift, making it a more essential resource than ever. As news and politics editor Steve Grove describes it), the new and improved site still displays the individual candidate channels, but they’re now paired with two recent videos, reducing the clicking factor. There’s also the “Playlist” featuring selected videos from supporters; election news videos from the AP, CBS, Reuters, and others; and an issues sections showing dozens of videos from the candidates about core campaign issues. It’s a great re-imagining of the official role YouTube can play in the election. The unofficial role — of voter-generated video having a global platform — has been well established.

• Will.i.am — the Black Eyed Peas’ frontman and the man behind the Obama “Yes We Can” video — has released an updated version of the video that replaces the images of celebrities with mosaics derived from pics of Obama supporters. Not sure what that means? Check it out. It’s not quite an improvement on the original, but it’s a great way to further visualize the bottom-up appeal of Obama’s campaign. Unfortunately, the site is entirely in Flash, which means we can’t link directly to the video and it hogs your comptuer’s memory. But it’s purty.

• Just-released John Edwards adviser and former Howard Dean Internet superhero Joe Trippi told a D.C. audience yesterday that the Hillary Clinton that “no one will make the mistake again of running a solely top-down presidential campaign in the Democratic Party,” referring, of course, to Hillary Clinton. He credits Barack Obama with building the best “bottom-up” campaign ever, thanks to his focus on cultivating small donors and running decentralized volunteer efforts. Trippi always brings fun metaphors to the table and said that the Dean campaign was “like the Wright Brothers …a flimsy little thing with propellers. Just four years later, [the Obama campaign is] landing on the moon.” (Hat tip, IPDI blog and Washington Independent)

• Most, but not all, geeks in webland have rejoiced over the idea that Lawrence Lessig, fancy PowerPoint presentation in tow, may run for Congress. But resident net skeptic Kevin Arthur thinks Lessig supporters may become disillusioned with a candidate with actual ideas beyond the web: “I can’t see Lessig’s pretentious PowerPoint playing well beyond his core nerd base, and even those followers might lose interest once we hear any other policy positions from him (if by chance he doesn’t follow all of the techno-libertarian ideals). If ever there were a candidate to typify the Facebook effect (or whatever we’re calling the internet-popularity-doesn’t-translate-into-votes phenomenon), then Lessig is surely the one.” But what if, like Obama, Lessig can translate that Facebook support into offline organizing and activism? Onffline, anyone?

• Remember when we mentioned GOP.com’s Obama Spendometer? Now it’s been widgetized. Enjoy.

The Candidates on the Web

• Today the New York Times published an article alleging that John McCain has had cozy — in both senses of the word — relations with lobbyists, and the story should dominate coverage of the race for at least the next, oh, 10 minutes. But in the face of lukewarm conservative support for McCain, the piece, which Erick Erickson at Redstate is calling a “hit job,” could serve to unite the base around McCain. As has often been noted, conservative activists’ two biggests enemies are Hillary Clinton and the New York Times; with one potentially out of the picture, they’re setting their sites on the other. As always, we’ll be paying attention to the charts to see how it plays out online.

• Sam Gustin at Portfolio.com secured the first interview with Larry Lessig since he announced his pre-intentions. Lessig talks to Gustin about how Obama’s message is resonating with voters, and is helping clear the way for other change candidates; his would-be opponent Jackie Speier and her acceptance of $250,000 from the insurance industry; and the importance of internet law to the district, which is otherwise known as… Silicon Valley.

In Case You Missed It…

Remember the Email Wars of 2007, when Chris Dodd would send an email designed to look like it was quickly tapped out on a BlackBerry, and Barack Obama would do the same (plagiarist!) two days later? Those were the days. Now we get 500-word emails from John McCain with no apparent ask.

Dave “Father of RSS” Winer got the chance to listen to an mp3 of a conference call between campaign journalists and senior staffers at the Clinton campaign, and he got an idea: why not make these calls available to everyone?