Yep, in both Monday and Tuesday's conference-coverage digests we promised that today we would be returning to our standard digest format. But we're going to do a round-up of coverance-related news today and return to the regular digest tomorrow. Probably.

• The exchange between former John Edwards campaign blogger Tracy Russo and John McCain's online advisor Mark Soohoo about Mark's candidate's grasp of technology, including Mark's remark that "John McCain is aware of the Internet," was picked up widely -- aided, no doubt, by the fact that video of the back-and-forth was quickly posted online. But here's a question: where's the defense of the Republican candidate's fitness for office from the online right? Mark's comment was said with a sense of disbelief at the premise of Tracy's question, but as the catchy line quickly becomes a campaign '08 meme the response of McCain backers seems to be nearly non-exisitant. As a U.S. senator, McCain served for several years at the head of a powerful congressional committee with jurisdiction over many tech issues -- making him a point person on issues related to the Internet, the world of technology (of both the high and low varieties), and the ever-evolving networked world. But the most spirited defense we've seen so far seems to be Danny Glover's argument on the Next Right that the Internet is nothing more than a communications tool that an American president doesn't need to be bothered with. Otherwise, crickets...

• Wonkette explains the flow of information that followed Soohoo's "John McCain is aware..." comments at PdF '08: "[Y]ou can only imagine the giggles from the techie crowd, all of whom immediately Twitter the quote to their pet gerbils." That would hurt more if it weren't more or less true.

In fact, we're going to go out on a limb and argue that PdF '08 might be the most mediated -- videod, Twittered, blogged -- conference in all of recorded history. Some evidence in favor:

• CNN iReport has posted video interviews with several attendees, including such techies as Esther Dyson, Craig Newmark, Robert Scoble, taken in the main conference hall. Via Qik, Micah Sifry streamed live from the conference hall with groups of conference goers including writers Jonathan Alter, David Corn, and Nancy Watzman; Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party; Ben Relles and Amber Ettinger of "Obama Girl" fame.

• CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy caught up with Larry Lessig to go deeper on his taken on the history of inside-the-Beltway corruption he spoke about in his keynote: "I think you see this cycle of reform and then reprise, and reform and reprise. And I hope we're seeing the beginning of another reform cycle."

• YouTube's news and politics editor Steve Grove blogs about what he learned about online video from his panel of "YouTube greats," Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, Josh Marshall of TPMtv, and Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusted. One tip Steve picked up: "Understand the ecosystem," i.e., recognize the need of both blogs and broadcast media to constantly fill their news holes.

• After spending some time at PdF with Tom Steinberg of MySociety, a U.K.-based civic engagement effort, Open Left's Matt Stoller comes to the conclusion that what we're witnessing in the U.S. '08 presidential race "is not really a 21st century campaign."

• The Caucus, the New York Times politics blog has a look at the "The Elizabeth Edwards Show," the unplanned peek into the home and lives of the Edwardses of North Carolina that Skype provided during Monday's keynote. InformationWeek calls John Edwards's surprise appearance "Political 'Candid Camera.'": "without the technology behind Skype, I doubt I ever would have seen anyone nominated for vice president come home from work without the self-consciousness and self-editing that usually comes from knowing you're on camera."

• BetaNews looks at the conference through the lens of its "rebooting democracy" theme.

• According to one tracking service, the hashtag "#pdf2008" was Twittered -- to gerbils or otherwise -- about 1,000 times.

• And that's the tip of the iceberg...

In Other News...

The first ever presidential Twitter tech policy debate -- featuring Republican National Committee communications director @LizMair on behalf of the McCain campaign vs. Obama tech advisor @mikenelson and moderated by @anamariecox -- has wrapped, and here's one view of the proceedings.

BusinessWeek has a glowing profile of Blue State Digital, the progressive tech shop that grew out of the Dean campaign and is now powering Barack Obama's online strategy. From the article, "Campaign insiders suggest privately that Blue State has so impressed Obama that, if he wins in November, the company could be in the unique position to play a role inside the White House." In other web vendor news, Republican TechPres contributors Mindy Finn and Patrick Ruffini have joined forces under banner of Engage.

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