As each primary has come and gone this year — Iowa, New Hampshire, Super Tuesday — YouTube has encouraged users to cover them using video. But politics editor Steve Grove, who heads up the YouChoose ‘08 section of the site, never thought we’d be going this late into the year. Yet here we are.

YouTube re-imagines YouChoose '08; Will.i.am remixes his "Yes We Can" video with mixed results; Joe Trippi speaks the truth, tells it like it is; a skeptic about a Lessig run for Congress and the first interview with Lessig since his announcement; the Obama Spendometer is widgetized; and a New York Times article about John McCain may end up helping more than hurting his campaign

Fallout from Elizabeth Edwards' quote; Rocketboom on how Denver '08 will be open access; cracks in the liberal-left; bundling for the unbundled; Ellen Goodman weighs in on net-gender; YouTube YouChoose has issues; ABC and NBC liberate pres-video; Republicans use the net for stealth attacks; and we win an award...

[Eds. note: This is an editorial from the creators of Community Counts, a site that aggregates YouTube Spotlight videos and lets users vote for their favorites, with the goal of “compelling the candidates to answer the questions most valued by the community." We think the group offers a powerful argument for the importance of using YouTube to encourage a two-way conversation between voters and candidates.]

With the 2008 Presidential race underway, it’s clear the Internet is revolutionizing the process of campaigning. Fundraising, mobilization, and the announcement of candidacies have all migrated to the Web. Candidates join social networking sites like MySpace. Viral videos share gaffes alongside electioneered laughs, and the online debates are coming. What we haven’t seen, however, is that most tantalizing of potential benefits: a truly independent, open, and national dialogue—the flattening of democracy. To achieve this, citizens must use the Internet to harness the “wisdom of crowds” and then convince politicians to heed that wisdom.

Esse Quam Videri (to be, rather than to seem), North Carolina’s state motto, might as well be the rallying cry of Internet democracy. The Kennedy-Nixon debate marked the growing importance of image in American politics. It mattered that Nixon wasn’t wearing makeup, and candidates now rely on media consultants. Consequently, many Americans see politicians as a collection of sound bites and glossy imagery. The Internet’s promise is that we can turn this tide by engaging with candidates in unfiltered and direct conversation.

Breaking news: Barack Obama is taking off like a rocket in the video-sphere, judging by the number of views his YouTube channel has garnered in the last 48 hours. Just take a look at our chart: After slowly rising in the last week to about 100,000 views, his site has shot through the roof, passing 400,000 in the last day. Everybody else is relatively flat.