Credit: BarackObama.com

At a fundraiser for low-dollar donors to the Democratic National Committee held in a DC hotel last night, President Obama fielded just four questions sent in by supporters through cell phone text messages or email, delivering policy-thick answers on his perspective of what needs to be done to pass health care reform (the gist: more vetting needs to be done), how government can help to grow small business (more lending), how we can keep America competitive in the future (more clean energy), and how the costs of higher education can be made more manageable (more loans and grants), in an event that had been billed by Organizing for America, in what was perhaps a bit of overpromise, as a "Conversation with the President." OFA Executive Director Mitch Stewart posed the questions to Obama at the tail end of an event that started about 20 past its scheduled 5:45pm EST start time, just after Obama wrapped up a speech to the crowd.

Leaving substance aside, performance-wise, aside from the event's Q&A-by-SMS twist what was perhaps most notable about the evening was just how fired up Obama seemed while delivering that speech. This Obama resembled more the candidate from the '08 campaign trail's most energetic days than the somewhat more staid president we've regularly seen over this past year. At one point, Obama just about yelled when admonishing the assembled crowd and those watching online to keep find, trumpeting, "Don't give up!" (Yes we can!, yelled someone in the crowd.) A passionate Obama continued. "The forces of the status quo might not give an inch," he said, "but we won't give an inch." Video of the full event is here.

More tidbits of new media goodness from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe's book, Going Rogue. Oh wait, that's not right. This one is called Audacity to Win, and in it Plouffe's offers tasty bites from the innerworkings of the innovative campaign. There's a theme: new media decisions often came from the top down and were intimately tied to the Obama campaign's strategic roadmap, and the campaign's leadership was willing to stand up and vigorously defend unconventionality even in the face of naysayers. Here's Plouffe on how the decision to announce Joe Biden's selection as VP via text message went down:

Joe Rospars came into my office one afternoon with the idea of telling our supporters first, before the media or politicos. "While our e-mail list is growing exponentially, our mobile list could use a big kick start," he explained. "Why don't we ask people to sign up for a text alert? We can tell them that they'll be the first to know who Barack picks as a VP.

The idea appealed to me on two levels. First, it was consistent with other key junctures in our campaign -- reporting fund-raising numbers, the decision to limit our primary debates, opting out of the public funding system -- where we had communicated first directly to our supporters...

Second, this was a great way to grow our text-messaging list. Rospars was right about the increasing gap in our contact figures; our email list was now over 6 million, but our list of mobile numbers was in the low six figures. Making a big announcement by text would ignite a spark and juice the latter number.

Have you gotten a text from either the Obama campaign or McCain campaign today? While McCain campaign hasn't done much on the texting front yet, the thinking has been that Obama will used the millions of mobile numbers he's collected over the last two years to turn out voters today. The question is -- how exactly? If you're getting texts today, from either campaign, let us know about them in the comments. In particular, don't forget to included details on what the messages say, how they seem to be targeting you as a voter, and where in the country you are (or, in some cases, where the texts think you are).

"At this point," writes Colin Delany on techPresident, "the Internet is pretty much done." Our work here is finished! Actually, Colin's talking about the idea that new media campaign staffers' heavy lifting is behind them. But let's play dumb and indeed jump ahead a week to start thinking transition; Will the Huffington Post and its ilk be old news by next Wednesday? That's the question being asked by Advertising Age's Nat Ives. There's evidence indicating that the answer leans "yep;" Forget robocalls, says Salon's Farhad Manjoo. Their efficacy is more rooted in myth than fact. Text messaging is where it's at, argues Farhad, and it's also where Obama and his robust mobile campaign has a huge lead over McCain and his non-existent one.

This is an absolute first and frankly it's f---ing brilliant. The California Democratic Party has a giant electronic billboard up somewhere near a Los Angeles-area rally that Republican VP candidate is doing today that is displaying live text-message questions people are sending in. On top of that, the whole thing is streaming live back onto the web using UStream.tv. Check it out:

The Center for Independent Media's Michigan Messenger is taking some intense GOP heat after a reporter broke the news of a local Republican official's comments that they planned to use foreclosure lists to block Michiganders from voting; The Palin Truth Squad is the new response team assembled by the McCain campaign to "counter recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin, her family, her friends and her record of accomplishment." And ThePalinTruthSquad.com is most definitely not their online home; How did Robert Greenwald go from a little known filmmaker to the force behind a great many of left-leaning video clips you'll come across on the web?; and much more.

The Center for Independent Media's Michigan Messenger is taking some intense GOP heat after a reporter broke the news of a local Republican official's comments that they planned to use foreclosure lists to block Michiganders from voting; The Palin Truth Squad is the new response team assembled by the McCain campaign to "counter recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin, her family, her friends and her record of accomplishment." And ThePalinTruthSquad.com is most definitely not their online home; How did Robert Greenwald go from a little known filmmaker to the force behind a great many of left-leaning video clips you'll come across on the web?; and much more.

Obama asks for Gustav help via text message, the RNC gets started, Twitter at the DNC, Palin uses eBay, Alaska's blogging industry, and Palin's e-family drama

There was little sign of the Obama campaign's vaunted world's largest phone bank at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday night, but the campaign did manage to score a few points by asking attendees to whip out their cell phones. According to Obama's Colorado campaign chair Ray Rivera, a contest that asked those at the event to text in a message of support to 62262 (which, naturally, spells "OBAMA" on a standard keypad) net the campaign tens of thousands of cell phone numbers in a matter of a few hours.

Liveblogging the DNC; sleuthing out McCain's VP pick; Sarah Palin will make these bloggers happy; Get your ObamaTaxCut.com; McCain's classy and messy moves; Obama's text-messaging machine revs up.