The American web is buzzing with activity around Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed $700 billion bailout bill, a test if there ever was one of the new balance of power in the digital age. On one side, we have the most powerful and well-financed sector of the economy pushing for urgent and sweeping action. On the other side, we have a bunch of disorganized minorities ranging from anti-Big Government and taxpayer groups on the Right, open government advocates in the Center and progressive and labor groups on the Left, each for their own reasons starting to question Paulson's proposal. Will Congress pass a "clean" bill, one that gives Treasury near-dictatorial powers to buy up distressed assets with taxpayer funds, bailing out troubled Wall Street firms and banks, and all with no meaningful oversight or judicial review? Or will the Paulson proposal be stalled, blocked or even killed by emerging and disorganized forces of opposition? This is a fight of gargantuan proportions, one that makes the civil confrontation over a Supreme Court pick seem like a nap in the park.

Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee win the Iowa caucuses on a night of record turnouts, especially by youth voters; could Eventful demands be accurate predictors of primary results?; Elaine Young considers what effect social media may have had on last night's results; Ron Paul gets dissed, again, by the media; Chris Dodd and Joe Biden drop out, but Mike Gravel absolutely DID NOT; a new poll confirms that more Americans are getting their election news online; and what if the top GOP web consultants were trekkies?

It's finally caucus day! MySpace crowns Barack Obama and Ron Paul the winners of its own primary; Barack Obama tops the Wu-Tang Clan on Eventful's Hottest Demands page; Chris Bowers experiences three epiphanies; Earfl lets you record a testimonial about your favorite candidate; Mike Huckabee is losing traction online, but Hillary Clinton is getting more and more blog mentions; Mitt Romney holds a tele-townhall with voters, makes it easy to robo-call; is Obama advertising on Drudge?; Mike Huckabee thanks bloggers for "doing the Lord's work"; a former SC governor messes up his Huckabee endorsement; and is a Chris Dodd thank-you video to the blogosphere his swan song?

Glenn Greenwald takes Chris Dodd's FISA victory seriously, unlike most of big media; Colin Delany is impressed with the grassroots effort behind Dodd; BlogHer asks why the candidates won't speak with them; a partnership between Rock the Vote and AT&T gets out the vote, text-style; a new site compares the candidates, and Obama and Clinton supporters engage in a Microsoft vs. Apple-style switcher's war.

The Ron Paul blimp is airborne; Zephyr Teachout schools NOW on Ron Paul and online vs. offline activism; Dickipedia catalogs the world's, um, you know; new site Campaign Circus collects videos by and about the candidates; Chris Dodd submits to YouTubes Constitutional Challenge, scores an A; and TechCruch produces a wonderfully off-kilter interview with Mike Gravel.

The FEC recommends that John Edwards not receive matching funds for the $4.3 million he raised on ActBlue, and DailyKos protests; a single Republican activist has a list of 71 million Christian voters, prompting the left to grasp for their own; Craig Newmark co-hosts an Obama fundraiser; Glamour magazine launches a group blog about the race; Barack Obama ba-reaks the 200,000 MySpace barrier; Chris Dodd speaks at Google, asks them to write his tech policy; and Matt Lewis says negative blogging is just hitting its stride.

Chris Dodd is appearing at Google right now and his dutiful web team is streaming it live on his site. 

Hopefully he'll address some of the tech policy issues we recently graded the Democrats and the Republicans on (will we have to adjust his grade?).

Mike Huckabee is getting high negatives in the blogosphere, testing the theory that any publicity is good publicity; the campaigns aren't just reaching young people with social media, but fogies too; Mashable attempts a review of the candidates' use of social media; Rudy Giuliani finally gets his web on; and Robert Scoble briefly describes the use of the web by the campaigns.

Chris Dodd and Mitt Romney's campaigns sent similar messages to their supporters yesterday.  Both fundraising emails highlighted donors' notes to the campaign, but the ways each campaign asks for money are almost polar opposites.  Dodd's message highlights people who gave $100 or less and suggests a $25 donation, while Romney's message encourages people to forward the notes to your "entire rolodex," and asks for donations of at minimum $80.  Join me to take a look at both of the messages.

National Public Radio's staff liveblogs their own presidential debate -- is this a first?; a French writer aggregates all she can find about the presidential race; why aren't the candidates blogging? We're just asking for a post here and there; Fred Thompson surrogate George Allen curiously evades Why Tuesday's questions about election reform; an IPDI blogger implores Ron Paul supporters to continue to do their own thing online, but wonders how their zealousness will translate for mainstream voters; Chris Dodd may be the first candidate to utilize Google News' commenting feature; the RNC organizers announce the inclusion of bloggers at the 2008 convention; and who's Iowa caucus training video is the most popular?