A note: For the rest of the week we will be in Chicago at the Yearly Kos. Expect a shortened daily digest tomorrow and Friday, but some liveblogging from the event.

The Web on the Candidates

• Patrick Ruffini looks at Fred Thompson's fundraising numbers for June, and finds that Thompson's raised 23% of his money (a little over $770,000) online. What Ruffini finds interesting is that, with no real direct mail base, there's no way a direct mail or telemarketing campaign would have come up with as much money. He concludes that, for Thompson, online fundraising may be the best way to raise money. "Though it’s critically important he get [direct mail and telemarketing] going, if they really work it, Fred’s could be the first major Republican campaign in which online receipts surpass direct mail and phones. That would be truly historic," he writes.
• AirCongress' Danny Glover takes a look at PoliticsTV's video showing their ten favorite questions asked at last week's CNN/YouTube debate (PoliticsTV co-produces techPresident's budding video blog). After lamenting that "the most serious questions barely made it into the top 10 and that half of the questions involve attempts at humor," Glover (who also writes for the National Journal) takes off his journalist hat to say that the debate "was not a serious exercise in democracy; it was all a big joke perpetrated by CNN, YouTube and a small segment of the electorate on the rest of America. Let’s hope everyone does better the next time." Most have criticized the debate to some extent, but I do think the debate -- which proved that journalists don't have a monopoly on substantive questions -- was a step in the right direction. I guess Danny yearns for the good old days when televised debates were the pinnacles of democracy...

The Candidates on the Web

• The pressure's on: Jose Antonio Vargas reports that Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson
  have signed up for the CNN/YouTube debate, joining Ron Paul and John McCain. Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have yet to jump in the ring (Vargas hears that Romney wants the debate pushed back from September to December).
• Chris Dodd will appear on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight to protest an ongoing campaign by Bill O'Reilly against Daily Kos and the Yearly Kos conference, in which he's cherry-picking a handful of offensive comments from a very large community of commenters and using them to judge the site and the conference. Aside from displaying little to no knowledge about how these blog-things operate, O'Reilly is clearly intent on smearing the site, and hasn't seemed interested in anyone's take on the "issue." Dodd's goal is to tell O'Reilly "enough is enough." "Unlike O'Reilly, Chris Dodd knows the difference between representative comments and ones cherry picked with a hostile agenda," says the campaign in a press release. "He has the conviction to stand with his friends online and stand up to O'Reilly." Should be interesting.
• Bill Richardson has a new TV ad up that smartly points to the limitations of, um, TV ads. It's promoting his clean energy plan, and opens, "On clean energy, a 30-second TV ad isn't enough time. But my website can show you why the Sierra Club called my plan much more aggressive." In the next 20 seconds, Richardson takes us through his website to promote his energy plan (look, he's on the Internets!), which calls for lowering demand for oil, raising mileage standards, and reducing greenhouse gases. The ad makes it clear that this information is housed on his website, and he seems at ease in making the connection. (via AirCongress)

In Case You Missed It...

TechPresident announces StaffWiki, an editable guide to web staffers working on the '08 campaigns. Know something about who's working on the campaigns? Add it to the wiki?

A note: For the rest of the week we will be in Chicago at the Yearly Kos. Expect a shortened daily digest tomorrow and Friday, but some liveblogging from the event.

Bill Richardson | CNN | debates | Mitt Romney | Rudy Giuliani | YouTube
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