• 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.
• Chris Bowers of MyDD is conducting a series of reader surveys with preliminary results posted this morning.
• In 2008, do not expect to see clips from MTV's "Choose or Lose" campaign on YouTube. MTV Networks parent-company, Viacom, failed to reach an agreement and demanded the video-host to take down all MTV and BET clips. (Hat tip: Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo)
• Matt Browner Hamlin says "enough" with the media's insistence on anointing Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) as the "new maverick" and "a rebel." Hagel's record, MBH contends at the Huffington Post, says otherwise.
• The new "blogmaster" for the Edwards campaign, Amanda Marcotte, received fire from several bloggers over comments she posted in regards to the Duke lacrosse-rape case in North Carolina. She later deleted the post stating that D.A. Mike Nifong "fumbled the ball" in an effort to "make a name for himself" with critics demanding her resignation. Her Pandagon remarks caught up with her in the comments of her initial Edwards blog post. More at DailyKos and the TalkLeft forums.

The Candidates on the Web

• The campaign website for Clinton (D-NY) showcases her remarks at the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting with the headline: "Making History." Her remarks on Iraq made the national news as she said she would not have attacked Iraq in 2002 and vowed to end the war if elected president. (Ezra Klein says that Clinton is faulting the intelligence rather than herself in a post at the American Prospect blog, TAPPED.)
• Melissa McEwan, known for her writing at Shakesphere's Sister under the same name, recently joined the Edwards (D-NC) campaign as netroots coordinator. Read her post at the Edwards blog here.
• Check out pictures from the DNC meeting at Dodd's (D-CT) campaign blog. Read the "netroots" take on Dodd and Edwards, courtesy of the candidates' campaigns.
• The redirect to the Flickr page for Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) does not work. (OK, lame thing to focus on, but aside from the news updates it is the only feature that has changed since the launch.)
• Read excerpts of former Governor Mitt Romney's (R-MA) speech at the Conservative Members Retreat here. Apparently it went better than his "unfocused" speech at the National Review Institute's "State of the Conservatism" Summit.
• Yawn: Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Kucinich (D-OH), former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), former Governor Tom Vilsack (D-IA)
• How long is "soon"? Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)
• What's he waiting for? Former Governor James Gilmore (R-VA)

• Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) launched his presidential campaign, via web video, in a hail of controversy regarding comments he made in reference to fellow Democrat, Senator Barack Obama (IL). Within hours, the audio of his remarks made it to YouTube, as did a clip of FOX News -- no stranger to an Obama controversy -- airing Biden's clarification. The senator later joked about it with The Daily Show host, Jon Stewart. (Video here.)
  
• In South Carolina, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is determined to win as he picked up the support of forty State House members -- all caught on video -- via Laurin Manning of South Carolina '08.
• Hotline On Call's Marc Ambinder wonders about "YouTube Oversaturation Syndrome." Says Ambinder: "If Romney survives these next few months and manages to convince conservatives that he's real, what happens in late 2007, when McCain airs an ad with some heretofore undiscovered Romney flip-flop? Will the political world be to YouTubed to death to care?" Something to ponder.
• The popular search engine Google introduced a new algorithm to battle "Google bombs," which is a coordinated effort to rig search results. MyDD blogger Chris Bowers wrote that he is unsure if this move is a response to his 2006 campaign to Google bomb a few dozen Republicans seeking re-election. But the move by Google may have preempted any notion to reprise the call in 2008.

The Candidates on the Web

• The Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting will feature several Democratic candidates and the candidates are trying to create excitement for their appearances to make a splash in Washington, D.C. Senator John Edwards (D-NC) is promoting his Friday morning appearance on the front page. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) has it featured in his upcoming events. Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) alerted his supporters via e-mail with all the details.
• Howard Fineman, writing for MSNBC, commented on the bare bones Obama (D-IL) calls a campaign website. "No blogs, no video, no trail reports," he observed. But Communications Director, Robert Gibbs, says that will change on February 10, the day Obama is expected to formally announce his candidacy. However, a Barack Obama Facebook group -- One Million Strong for Barack -- has created plenty of buzz with 189,000 total members. In much the same way his announcement video created knockoffs, supporters of other candidates started "One Million Strong" groups with only a fraction of the support for Obama.
• In his announcement video, Biden (D-DE) spoke softly with an open-collar in front of a roaring fireplace. Running on his foreign policy experience, he commented almost entirely on Iraq. His campaign website includes links to "current initiatives": Plan for Iraq, with an option to endorse it, and No More Troops that includes a petition.

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) launches his presidential bid this morning and according to Beth Fouhy of the Associated Press, the longtime senator will announce his candidacy via online video to supporters.

While in Iowa this weekend, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) was caught on microphone singing the national anthem out of tune, reports the New York Times' Patrick Healy. The new media that sparked a "conversation" about her announcement message quickly turned on her as the video made it to YouTube within hours.

The Internet age allows for instant access to up-to-the-minute information but one drawback is accuracy is sometimes sacrificed for the scoop. The website Insight, an online magazine owned by the Washington Times, reported that Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) attended a madrassa as a child in Indonesia and the report came from the Clinton camp. It was quickly debunked, both the claim and any connection to Clinton, but the lesson remains.

Arianna Huffington, the former Republican-turned-Democratic-online guru, wants to organize the first ever online debate for the 2008 presidential election. Can you imagine that? "A green light will come on to signal the candidate has 30 characters left. A yellow light signals 15 characters. A red light means five characters left in the text box."

MyDD's Chris Bowers combs through the data from 2004 and heading into the 2008 primary season to "call B.S." on the blogosphere in writing off Clinton as at her peak in the nationwide polls.

The Candidates on the Web

After months of telling nationwide audiences that he is running for president in 2008 at every opportunity, Biden (D-DE) will make it official with the FEC today. But his campaign website is already up and running. Complete with video clips of his various television appearances, Biden also features outreach efforts to the usual suspects online (MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr), a fully functioning Biden Blog, with a relaxed Joe Biden sporting a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wardrobe in the banner.

Clinton (D-NY) visited Iowa this weekend and if you couldn't make it to the Hawkeye State, her campaign website has the highlights.

The absorption of top bloggers to presidential campaigns continued as Senator John Edwards (D-NC) hired a "new blogmaster" -- Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon fame. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) locked up Patrick Hynes, Clinton has Peter Daou, Edwards has Mathew Gross and now Marcotte, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) nabbed Patrick Ruffini, and former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) has received plenty of praise for his blogger outreach efforts, though he lacks a blog himself.

While Democratic candidates experiment with music playlists, online video and social networking sites, Obama's (D-IL) campaign site remains virtually unchanged since he launched his presidential exploratory committee.

Giuliani (R-NY) made some minor adjustments to his campaign home-- an easier e-mail sign-up and "Rudy News," a round-up of favorable articles on the former mayor.

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) calls himself the "most conservative candidate"
and aligns Iraq with the War on Terror on the main page with an Iraqi map on the main page that appears to show the pre-invasion no-fly zones.