We’re about to launch a new PDF blog on the 2008 presidential campaign that will focus on how the candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how voter-generated content is affecting the campaigns. One feature of the blog will be a daily digest, out each morning, that reports the latest news in both categories. What follows is a taste; stay tuned for launch details.

- The Editors

Jake Tapper, senior national correspondent for ABC News, has a series of web videos outlining the historical racial insensitivities of presidential aspirant, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE).

Copies of Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) "I'm in" video has appeared on YouTube and, collectively, amassed over 7,100 views, according to Donna Bogatin at ZDNet. However, the official upload, Bogatin writes, is not a "viral video sensation," registering only 550 views and eight subscribers to the "hillarydotcom" channel.

TPMCafe's Election Central has video highlights from six possible Democratic presidential hopefuls from the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. Among the official, exploring, or rumored candidates: Senators Christopher Dodd (CT), Hillary Clinton (NY), Barack Obama (IL), John Edwards (NC), Congressman Dennis Kucinich (OH) and retired General Wes Clark (AR). ABC's Political Punch has more, including a podcast from the DNC meeting.

Obama (D-IL) drew over "3,000 mostly sign-waving students" in Virginia, notes New York Times political blogger, Sarah Wheaton. The event was sponsored by the George Mason University chapter of Students for Barack Obama, a national, student-based grassroots organization. The group used Facebook, a social networking favorite among college students, to handle RSVPs for the February 2 appearance. More from the Associated Press here.

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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.

The Web on the Candidates

"If the liberal blogs want to understand why so few people outside their narrow echo chamber take them seriously, and what it will take to gain the broader credibility they crave, they should look no further than their handling of the recent flap over John Edwards’ foul-mouthed blogger hires," says Dan Gerstein in the Politico.

Patrick Ruffini calls John Edwards' site a "mess," in part because, as Todd Ziegler notes, there are icons for and links to 24 social news/social networking sites. "I get it. The Edwards campaign is really into the whole Web 2.0 thing. Message delivered. I understand the power of these networks. I do. But 24 accounts? This just strikes me as sort of ridiculous," Ziegler says. Ruffini says there's also too much text on the home page: "A homepage should be made for scanning, so a big graphic with your message of the day, with icons and 5-6 word descriptions of your key features is what works best."

The Web on the Candidates

Marianne Richmond at Blog the Campaign in 08 takes a look at the blog on Hillary Clinton's site and find something missing: Hillary.

Mitt Romney is trying his best to replicate Barack Obama's Facebook popularity. However, the University of Arizona's student paper, the Wildcat, points out: "Of the 36 posted photos of Romney's life and campaign, he seems to only interact with white people. (Note to the Romney 2008 campaign: These things can be both an asset and a liability.)"

The Web on the Candidates

The Editors Weblog reports that The New York Times and the New York Sun are both developing dedicated web sites to cover the 2008 election. "The migration of politics and political journalism to the web isn't quite new, but it sure is moving fast. We're moving too," NYT executive editor Bill Keller says.

Valleywag took a tour through John Edwards' unofficial space in Second Life and wound up asking, "where are all the people, anyway?" Well, there two people there, and the writer was able to hop on to a helicopter and hover next them, prompting one person to say, "Dude, there's a helicopter behind you."

The Web on the Candidates

Danny Glover at AirCongress posted a 45-minute video (it's hosted on YouTube; since Google owns it, they made an exception for the 10-minute video length rule) of Hillary Clinton speaking to with Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Google headquarters last week. According to the Mercury News, Clinton first discussed policy issues with Google execs before speaking before a crowd of 200 Google employees. Although Bill Clinton enjoyed high popularity in Silicon Valley, Hillary still needs to work for their support. "She can draw on what Bill Clinton meant to the valley; it's definitely an asset. But I don't think it's immediately or fully transferable," says Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone. [via AirCongress]

Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post takes a look at the battle for netroots support among Democrats and sees that, unlike 2004 when the nascent movement supported Howard Dean, "the support of the netroots is less unified this time around." His three measures of support? The fundraising numbers on Act Blue (John Edwards leads the pack with over $900,000 raised), the DailyKos monthly poll (Edwards is first place with 26; Obama trails at 25 percent), and... techPresident, who provides the MySpace stats (Obama's on top).

The Web on the Candidates

Todd Zeigler at the Bivings Report responds to Giuliani consultant Patrick Ruffini and techPresident's David All's discussion about what technologies will have the greatest impact in the 2008 election. He names Ning, a social network creation tool; Mozes, a text message broadcast app; Twitter, a status updater using IM, email, and text messaging; NowPublic, a user-generated news source; and MyBlogLog, a social networking service focused on blogs.

Videoblogger James Kotecki (who's now working with Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network) posts about John McCain's video strategy. Unlike Jeff Jarvis, who thinks that "McCain’s videos may be ready for prime time, but not for YouTube," Kotecki showers praise on McCain's short, highly-produced videos, which he says can double as both online videos and TV ads.