The Web on the Candidates

President Bush is now quoting bloggers, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the Caucus reports.  "I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers — they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here," Bush said.  He quoted a passage that described improving conditions in Baghdad: "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."  However, the posts were written weeks ago, and were reprinted in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.  Although the Bush Administration initially stonewalled on the bloggers' identity, it was eventually disclosed that the bloggers are two dentist brothers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, who live in Baghdad, and who visited the White House in December 2004.

Four female advisers to Hillary Clinton hosted a web chat yesterday and according to the New York Times' Patrick Healy, the message was "All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women."  The chat topics ranged from having time for the family ("...every time that I feel pangs of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president. And what a role model Hillary will be to her.") to Hillary's user of power, to the war in Iraq, to health care. 

No one doubts that MoveOn.org is one of the most powerful and versatile e-organizations of the 21st century. But a quick glance at participation rates in the group's first "Virtual Townhall" this week might make you think otherwise, as just 43,000 members voted in the straw poll that followed, not even two percent of the group's 3.2 million e-members. But figuring out what sort of participation rates matter online is a tricky process, and I think you shouldn't be fooled by these seemingly low numbers into thinking that the liberal-progressive base attached to MoveOn isn't paying attention to the primary race.

I'm not sure how far we should take this analogy, but Ron Paul is to the Republicans of 2008 as Howard Dean was to the Democrats of 2004: the one candidate speaking out prominently against the war when his colleagues were silent or supportive. Since politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, we shouldn't be surprised that he's starting to take off online.

Democracy Now reported this morning that the Republican lobbying firm of Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers is working for former Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi in his upcoming bid to replace current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. In preparation for this campaign, which is still in search of a scheduled election, the firm has purchase AllawiForIraq.com.

Increasingly, new tools are empowering local "amateur" campaign staffers to produce quality content centered around local people.

It's Friday, which means it's time for our weekly list of our favorite online political videos. Some of these videos have begun to go viral and spread around the web; others are here because we think they're well-produced pieces of online media.

After the jump, look out for some bizarre Icelandic rapping about Iraq; Fred Thompson asking a crowd to applause for him; and a scary deconstruction of Hillary Clinton's laughing fits.

History's Lessons for a Wired White House...Tracking the Evolution of Change.gov...Incoming Administration Faces Information Overload...Palin's Unstoppable Online Power...Just How Historic Was Obama's Presidential Run?...American Diplomacy in the Age of Facebook...and more.

Change.gov's Open for Questions feature opened for business just yesterday morning, as I reported. Already, its first scandal! A few dozen queries about the suddenly infamous deal-making governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, are being "censored," writes Politico's Ben Smith...The Obama campaign has been hitting its email list plenty hard over the last few days, hawking, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee, everything from $35 four-year calendars to a rather cute knit cap, yours for $25 or more...Former Clinton Administration Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, who knows a thing or two about uncomfortable White House sexual situations, says on VanityFair.com that a recent Facebook photo of Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau fondling a cardboard version of a certain member of his boss's cabinet-to-be, "is no laughing matter"...and much more.

She's been uncharacteristically quiet since her confirmation as Secretary of State, but the Obama Administration's other rock star seems poised to change all that with her first big overseas trip to Asia - with the help of a Twitter-fueled blog audience that has increased three-fold since Barack Obama's inauguration. And while she inherits massive foreign policy challenges from her predecessor, Hillary Clinton also inherits a new media team at State that's at least a year into remaking America's digital image on the web.

Started under former Secretary Rice - and emphatically seamless, professional and non-partisan in its transition to Secretary Clinton - the expansion of State's online operation seems primed for President Obama's primary international goal: rebuilding the U.S. brand overseas.

Last week, Secretary Clinton's team at the State Department put up a short post on Dipnote, the departmental blog, asking for suggestions on technology and social media. It asked: "How Might the U.S. Utilize Innovative Technologies To Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy?"

The responses are illuminating and thoughtful, and worth reading by anyone considering the evolution of open government in the digital age.