John Edwards decided not to fire bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen for things they wrote before he hired them, receiving acclaim from the left and the right, respectively. "This is all being made up as we go along," said Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network in the Times' wrap-up, which compared the Edwards bloggers' statements to inflammatory statements made by Patrick J. Hynes, the conservative blogger hired by John McCain.

Glenn Greenwald claims success at getting the "MSM" to balance the story: "[the blogosphere] forced into the public discussion critical facts that were being omitted and which exposed the absurdity of this story, thereby providing a counterweight to the joint right-wing/media pressure on Edwards to capitulate to these forces." John Palfrey calls the attacks on Edwards' bloggers "an extension of classic opposition research. It points to some of the risks at having people blog on behalf of a campaign in an official capacity." Phil Noble adds, "we have a new technology that's disrupting the whole political process, and we haven't figured out what the rules are."

A Rightwingnews.com poll suggests that Duncan Hunter has gained significant new support among the conservative netroots. Newt Gingrich was the most popular potential candidate, followed by Hunter and Mitt Romney. Chuck Hagel, George Pataki, and John McCain were very unpopular among the 230 participants in the poll.

The Politico and MSNBC are sponsoring the first GOP debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA on May 3. It will be broadcast online on the Politico's web site, where viewers can submit questions to the candidates.

Ben Smith of The Politico reports that a new Hillary-obsessed website, JustHillary.com ('It's All About Her"), has launched. It chronicles its editor's obsession with Clinton and, by extension, the media's obsession as well. It features links to Hillary-centric news articles, editorials, blog posts, YouTube videos, and looks like it was designed in 1997.

A straw poll conducted by GOP Bloggers has Rudy Giuliani at the top of the heap at 32.2%, over 8% higher than Newt Gingrich, the runner-up. Another interesting metric is the "candidate acceptability" poll, in which Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel has a -67% approval rating, probably stemming from his break with President Bush on Iraq.

The Web on the Candidates

Is Al Gore running? Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't get it out of it him, but after he won an Oscar for best documentary last night people are talking. Patrick Ruffini noticed that Gore's web site has a new splash page asking visitors to send their names and email addresses to Congress; Ruffini wonders if it's a sign of bigger ambitions. "A good e-mail list is something any candidate needs to hit the ground running. And if you’re smart, you capitalize on high-impact events like the Oscar win to collect e-mail addresses."

In a profile of Students for Barack Obama leaders, the Merced Sun-Star looks for ways that campaigns can use social networking sites like Facebook to get people elected. Meredith Segal, executive director of the group, knows it's about more than online organizing. "We recognize that we have tens of thousands of members online. But unless we get those people out knocking on doors, participating in phone banks, registering voters and obviously ultimately voting, (our) online organizing will be little more than a powerful way to demonstrate support for (Obama)."

The Web on the Candidates

James Kotecki has been offering the presidential candidates free advice about using online video but he's disappointed in the one-way conversations most of them are conducting (read: they won't respond to him). John Edwards and Newt Gingrich wrote text responses to his videos analyzing their online campaigns; Joe Biden's campaign subscribed to Kotecki's videos. No other candidate has yet responded.

Jeff Jarvis responds to an article in the Politico by techPresident's Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej in which they compare the presidential candidates' use of video to the online videos of British MP David Cameron webcameron, in which the head of the Conservative party posts disarming and off-the-cuff videos that take place in his kitchen, on work trips, or anywhere else he happens to be. Compared to Cameron, Jarvis calls John McCain's videos "overproduced" and "overlong"; "Obama is spending too much time showing himself in front of big crowds and too little time just talking to us... Hillary is more casual but not candid. Yet they are all reveling in their ablity to make their own soundbites instead of being subject to the clipping whims of some network TV news editor."

The Web on the Candidates

The blogs are agog after New Gingrich, in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, implied he would run for president. When asked how likely it was that he'll make a decision by the end of September, he replied, "I think right now, it is a great possibility." Although a statement on Newt's own website says that "Newt will not contemplate a candidacy until after September 29," bloggers from both sides of the aisle and gearing up for a Gingrich candidacy. Jack Ryan at the conservative Redstate thinks it's a bad idea: "At a time when the republican party should be looking for a new face that wasn't linked to the big spending congress of years past, Newt Gingrich would be a disaster as the face of the party. Nor should we have as our leader a guy with as many "personal relationship" problems leading the party. Nor should we have someone like Gingrich who still has an ethical cloud hanging over him from his days as Speaker." Meanwhile, Jonathan Singer at the liberal MyDD is "salivating over a Gingrich candidacy" given Gingrich's unpopularity.

"Though reporters, and blogs like the Drudge Report, take credit for scoops, the news of the day is more often than not produced by the invisible hand of one campaign or another," writes Salon's Michael Scherer. While most of us know about this symbiotic relationship, Scherer packs his piece with evidence and examples from the 2008 campaign that makes it clear once again that Matt Drudge -- and a host of other blogger/journalists -- is often feeding us oppo research.

Discovering the major and minor edits made to candidates' Wikipedia profiles; Jonah Goldberg argues against the idea that the web is inherently suited to liberals; surprising findings about the effect of Facebook and MySpace on political opinion; Change.org gets into the presidential quiz game; Newt launches a new site called "American Solutions"; and the difficulties of registering and logging into candidates' sites.

Barack Obama is the winner of the Huffington Post/Yahoo/Slate mashup debate; John Edwards will visit Columbus, KY, the winning town in his Eventful demands competition; Off The Bus introduces Roadkill, a guide to the goofy and wacky in the campaigns; Newt Gingrich posts on Mike Huckabee's blog, world explodes; Bill Richardson releases a new video featuring Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers, with a cool new site to boot; and Mike Huckabee hosts "Vertical Day," a 24-hour Q&A with supporters.

A new video investigates Rudy Giuliani's "scheduling conflicts" on the day of an African American-themed debate; a video shows that Mitt Romney has invested a tidy sum of money in Iran, despite very public calls for others to divest from the country; some missing John Edwards videos turn up on YouTube; a new social networking site aims at online liberals; Ron Paul raises over $1 million in an end-of-quarter fundraising push; and Newt Gingrich will not be running for president in 2008.

Nobel speculation heats talk of Gore bid; Facebook Political Summit Tuesday to face criticism?; Slatecard, GOP answer to ActBlue, launches; Evangelicals going progressive?; Michael Cornfield sums up the online field; Obama spokesman goes bottom-up; Rudy makes a fundraising boo-boo; and Meghan McCain goes-a-blogging.