• Oh, the web, she'll never let you forget the words you say. A day after Barack Obama announced his intention to opt out of the public-financing system for the general election, Politico unveils a YouTube-enabled video retrospective of the Democratic candidate's past remarks on the merits of taxpayer-funded politics. Are we witnessing an evolution from the "eh, they won't remember anyway" school of campaign politics to "eh, they might remember, but they won't care" thinking? Perhaps -- the New York Times has a roundup of the largely positive reaction to Obama's opt-out in the left-leaning blogosphere. But the Next Right's Patrick Ruffini has a less charitable take.

• But sometimes, she sure does have your back. Did pro-Obama bloggers both foreign and domestic really succeed in getting this Obama accuser (we won't go into the sordid details of the allegations except to say that they involved illegal substances, a limousine, and some extramarital contact) frogmarched out of the National Press Club in Washington DC by alerting authorities to warrants out for his arrest? It sure does appear that way.

• Your mission, should you choose to accept it: OffTheBus is recruiting a new class of "Special Ops" -- politically-engaged locals who are willing to take on one detailed assignment a week on how the '08 presidential race in shaping up in their town. The goal is to have a network of volunteers at the ready in the many parts of the American landscape that the mainstream press can't hope to staff. Interestingly, the call OffTheBus put out is really for researchers, not wordsmiths. The info the SpecialOps collects will go into a database that OTB writers can pull from to craft their own stories.

The Candidates on the Web

• Okay, so let's say I'm a real estate exec curious about whether Donald Trump's upcoming "How to Win Like the Donald" seminar coming to my city is worth the price of admission. If I'm using the social network for professionals LinkedIn, I may well use the site's Answer tool to ask my network of colleagues and business associates for their guidance. Now let's say you're Barack Obama and you're after feedback on your newly-released competitiveness agenda, you might also put it to your business-minded LinkedIn network. It's a clever way of exploiting the unique personality of an online social tool. Obama's question has attracted 844 "answers" and counting.

• The digital marketing site ClickZ's is keeping a running collection of the online banner advertising the presidential campaigns are serving up this season. It's neat to see all the ads side-by-side and in one place, but it would be particularly interesting to know where the campaigns chose to run them.

TechCongress and Beyond

• The Twittering congressman is now the Qik-ing congressman: Texas Republican Rep. John Culberson is doing live video streaming of interviews with his fellow members of the House during today's vote on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. You have to wonder what John's colleagues think when they see him coming.

• Newt Gingrich has at least two things going for him: (1) the former Speaker of the House is becoming quite adept at using the Internet to keep himself relevant (perhaps a result of his picking up an Internet director tied into Silicon Valley?) and (2) impeccable timing. Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future recently launched a "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign making use of YouTube, Facebook, Digg, etc., -- just as the debate over domestic oil drilling is heating up both in the Beltway and out in the states. Whether happy coincidence or smart planning, it worked: Gingrich's Drill Here petition drive just topped a million signatures.

• The legislation-tracking project OpenCongress has spiffed itself up with a redesign. Some of the new social goodness to look out for: a "users also tracking" notifier lets the wisdom of the crowd point you to bills you might also want to keep an eye on and a befriending option lets you connect with fellow Congress-watchers with similar interests.

• Mr. Scoble Goes to Washington: the California-based tech blogger is heading to the nation's capital for a party next Wednesday and you're invited.

In Case You Missed It…

Matthew Burton, a technologist engaged in the intelligence community, explains "Why I Help 'The Man,' and Why You Should Too." Burton writes: "We need a Mozilla Foundation for the government. A stateside Geekcorps. A geeky Americorps..."

Brian Leher has been talking up PdF '08 on his show on New York's NPR station. It starts this Monday, people! And yes, Brian will be there.

Barack Obama | FISA | John Culberson | Newt Gingrich
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