In her non-concession speech, Hillary asks for input - but is it just to stall? Or a fundraising ploy? And did Peter Daou warn her about what Chris "Google Bomb" Bowers can do with an open invite like that?

PLUS: Did Hillary have her event 50 feeut underground to duck Obama's cellphone call???

How will the end game play out? You make the call!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/29/delegate.counter/index.html

h/t Heather

After weeks of gotchas from the e-paparazzi, which seemed to suggest Web Video is the medium only of the gaffe, along comes a Web Video exposé that restores faith in the new citizen medium.

This YouTube video – http://youtube.com/watch?v=B4P-camUjjk – exposed the deplorable conditions of the Fort Bragg barracks where soldiers returning from Afghanistan live. Turns out that even when returning home, our soldiers have been living in Hell holes thanks to intolerable neglect.

And America might have never known of this intolerable treatment of our soliders – but for the efforts of a digital citizen and their a YouTube account.

Politically, 2008's "Bittergate" will be but a bump in the road compared to 2006's "Macaca Moment". But Bittergate DOES serve as a key reminder of the Macaca Moment’s core communications lesson for 21st century campaigns: Candidates should know they are being recorded 24/7.

Rich's column focuses less on the technology aspect debated by Zephyr and myself earlier in the week, and Friday by Ari Melber, but worth reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/opinion/10rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&o...

I thought the Clinton town hall was pretty cool -- and pretty significant.

Not because it was interactive-to-the-max (more on that below). Not because it was a great issues discussion for anyone who has been following the race closely (though its target audience are voters who have not been following the race closely). Not because Hillary is a great tech candidate, or will be a great tech president (though her gov Blogs proposal is the most interesting tech policy proposal to date). In fact, not because of Hillary at all (though she did well, though I’m sure Obama would have done better in that type of forum). Nor even because it was a great technological leap forward (Bill Clinton did the first electronic town hall in 92 - more later).

Hillary’s town hall was significant for more prosaic reasons: It took candidate electronic town halls - and TV/Web simulcasts - mainstream.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, the de facto big cheeses on general election debates, watched the primary debates, and embraced the future.

The Times take: less visually interesting than the Dem debate (by design), but voters again asked very interesting, serious questions: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/post-debate-video-wrap-up/
I think CNN/YouTube, despite the objections aired here and elsewhere, have again shown that their format works pretty darn well.

Also, a profile on ActBlue.com's Matt DeBergalis and Ben Rahn: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/us/politics/29actblue.html?ref=politic...

For the Iowa caucuses, the Obama campaign will be courting supporters of other candidates who fail to reach the "viable" threshold in the caucus meetings.

Confused? With the Obama Website Caucus Center flash/video, even non-Iowans can see how the caucus system will make for an interesting January 3.

Check it out: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ia_caucus_center/

Web Video has seen yet another first this week:

The Burmese protests mark the first Web Video mass protests, where the medium unquestionably has had a major impact on a political mass revolt.