• Tough Topic Tops Transition Site: The highest-rated query for President-elect Barack Obama over on Change.gov's Open for Questions feature certainly isn't a softball along the lines of "What are you going to name the First Puppy?" It's whether, as president, Obama will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration on everything from torture to wiretapping. Nation writer Ari Melber and Democrats.com's Bob Fertik have been rallying support for the question, which has attracted just under 23,000 votes, putting it at the top of the 75,600 questions currently on the site. (Here's a tip: To reveal the number of votes in favor of a OFQ question, mouse over the the bar graph underneath it.) The only other entry on Change.gov with anywhere near that level of support is one on holding banks accountable for the money spent during the federal bailout. The question in third place, regarding public transit, has attracted just 6,000 or so votes. "We expect a 'yes,' 'no,' or detailed explanation of how and when Obama and his aides will make this decision," writes Melber. The idea's momentum threatens to put the incoming administration's openness advocates at odds with those on the team who would rather pass on answering such a sticky political question.

• Inside the Blue State Machine: Boston Globe's David Talbot looks back at how Blue State Digital became the Obama campaign's go-to web firm, with insight into the Massachusetts-based technology "boiler room" run by BSD's Jascha Franklin-Hodge. (We know Boston loves to call itself the Hub, but now it's "the Hub of the progressive geek universe"? Suuure.) During the campaign, Blue State certainly figured out how to build engaging tech, but how to apply that learning to governing is still very much an open question. As Blue State's Thomas Gensemer told Talbot, "It remains to be seen just how well-utilized this will be -- and whether people who were motivated by a campaign will be motivated by the whole bill-become-a-law thing."

• Hill GOP Leadership Eager to Engage: Obama may have bested John McCain when it came to campaign tech, but here's a reminder that the GOP isn't sitting around licking its wounds: House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia has just launched a sharp new website aimed at "utilizing every technology available to hold a conversation about the future of our country." You'll notice that the online presence of his Democratic counterpart, South Carolina's Jim Clyburn, doesn't appear to have the same ambitions of interactivity.

• "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Member of Facebook?": Aspirants to Hillary Clinton's soon-to-be open Senate seat in New York are being required to hand over links to their -- and their kids' -- online activities, reports the New York Times Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore. In a section titled "Publications and Internet Sites" of the 24-page questionnaire prepared by Governor David Paterson's office, hopefuls are asked for details on their and their immediate family's personal websites, "including any MYSPACE or FACEBOOK page." (Why are the sites' names in all-caps? UNCLEAR.) A separate question asks, "Have you ever maintained, or written for, a weblog (a 'blog')?" Check out our Matt Burton's self-described "rant" about the risks that "vetting creep" poses to public service.

• New York Times' Congress API: The New York Times' digital division has launched the latest in its series of APIs, and this one has to do with Congress: biographical data on members and details on roll call votes, all tied to a common member ID number pulled from the congressional Biographical Directory. The Congress API unleashes high-quality, standardized data on the building blocks of democracy, with the Times in the role of caretaker who is (most likely) not going anywhere. It's data meant to be remixed and mashed up, so go forth and build.

• You Write the Inaugural Address: Just before the Democratic convention in Denver, we profiled how the neat collaborative platform Mixed Ink was being used to craft a "Netroots Platform." The service, which bundles together community-editing and idea-generating tools that still respect authorship, was in closed beta at the time. It's just launched as an open (and free) service. Mixed Ink has partnered with Slate to produce a "People's Inaugural Address," made by mixing together our own brilliance with phrasings from the addresses from the 55 presidential inaugurations gone by. Slate will run the speech that is most highly rated by other Mixed Ink users. One hundred thirty five drafts have been submitted, and the top contributor of language thus far: some dude named Franklin Roosevelt.

• Single Sign-On Gains Ground: In their call for a "nonpolitical" and internally-focused CTO, Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales and entrepreneur Andrea Weckerle advance an idea we've proposed on techPresident: a single sign-on for government websites. Their other recommendations for the first federal chief technology's agenda include streamlining procurement, embracing open-source software, and, natch, launching a government wiki. In other words of advice for the White House, Obama ought to fight to hang on to his Blackberry, writes Paul Begala, so that the new President might "keep...in touch with what [former President Bill Clinton] called "walkin' around people."

• Resolving the SoapBlox Meltdown: There's been some resolution, it seems, of the the SoapBlox crisis we covered on techPresident earlier this week. Paul Preston, who heads up the hosted service that powers many progressive blogs, posted a press release on SoapBlox.net saying that volunteers had come together to get the platform back up and running -- at least in the near term. "Soon," Preston wrote, "we will be establishing a way for you to help provide whatever you are willing to keep SoapBlox--and a large chunk of the progressive blogosphere--safe, secure and constantly improving." The long-term solution, he suggested, includes transforming SoapBox from "a proprietary model to one of open source."

• Two's a Trend: FEMA to Hold Twitter Presser: Taking a page, it seems, from the Israeli consulate in New York's recent Twitter press conference, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be hosting a Twitter-based "all access social media press conference" with FEMA Administrator David Paulison on Monday afternoon. Follow @femainfocus to get in on the event. (Via Ellen Miller.)

Got tips, leads, or story ideas for the Daily Digest? Get in touch. Email tips@personaldemocracy.com or contact @techpresident on Twitter.