One of the more fascinating aspects of the presidential campaign has been the proliferation of email smears against Barack Obama, and his campaign's efforts to fight back. Back in July, such an email dropped into my inbox, which claimed to be a reprint of a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd. A complete fabrication quickly debunked, the column claimed that contributions to the Obama campaign originated illegally from the Middle East and China. Now comes news that the RNC will file a complaint against the Obama campaign for the possibility of accepting illegal foreign donations.

Last April we told you about an effort by an independent filmmaker that aimed to organize Obama supporters to donate $1 million to the candidate in under 1 minute. (They ended up raising a respectable $245,000 in a couple minutes.)

Now the same effort is back with a new face. "An Obama Minute" aims to raise $1 million on Monday between 12:00 and 12:01 in the afternoon, helped along by an interactive billboard in Times Square (and accompanying widget).

This is an absolute first and frankly it's f---ing brilliant. The California Democratic Party has a giant electronic billboard up somewhere near a Los Angeles-area rally that Republican VP candidate is doing today that is displaying live text-message questions people are sending in. On top of that, the whole thing is streaming live back onto the web using UStream.tv. Check it out:

We're now two debates in to the general election, neither of which, I think it's fair to say, made a stellar case for professional moderation. Gwen Ifill seemed somehow restrained last night, pushing for consensus where none really existed. (I'm thinking of this exchange on marriage equality). And Jim Lehrer seemed to barely be a presence at the first debate. The whole thing kinda makes you wish for snowmen, doesn't it? The YouTube debate certainly had its ups and downs. But it did push the candidates outside their talking point comfort zones -- something that hasn't happened in the general election.

Senator Feinstein sent a letter to the Social Security Administration on September 23rd asking for the postponement until after the election of the SSA's maintenance effort that will shut down its database for three days. Yesterday, the Senator received a letter back from the SSA refusing to change its maintenance schedule.

Medill Reports's Jason M. Breslow has a roundup of how Twitter is being used for politics these days. We're seeing folks use it to debate, to share ideas, to organize (though, as Jason mentions, we're not seeing either Barack Obama and John McCain use it to good effect). Witnessing the evolution of how people are pulling and shaping Twitter to fit their own political purposes is downright fascinating; What's most remarkable about the new Obama iPhone app is that it's actually the fruit of a relationship between the Obama campaign and a team of ten or so volunteers; The Christian Science Monitor's Ben Arnoldy asks the million-dollar question: can people-powered outreach really win presidential elections?; and quite a bit more.

Enormous efforts have been made by campaigns and public interest groups to register people to vote on November 4th. According to the Election Assistance Commission more than 2 million poll workers will be working at over 200,000 polling places this election. Unfortunately, what these new voters don’t know is that just registering to vote may not ensure that they are able to vote on Election Day or that their vote will be counted.

Back in my day, if you had a bright idea, you planted a flag for it by registering a domain name. But that time has passed, my friends. These days, even more important than a website seems to be picking a humble Twitter hashtag to define a political meme. Then you throw it out into the world and seeing if it has any stickiness. Good ones can evolve out of Twitter to the rest of the web and world, portable from Twitter to RSS streams to, yes, domain names to blog post tags. Hashtags are kinda like OpenID for ideas.

Today the Obama campaign announced it released the Obama '08 iPhone app, a free application for your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app is pitched as a "a great volunteering tool that lets you make a difference any time you want by talking to people you already know." It's a slick application, but is it useful 33 days from the election?

Update: I received word from the developers that this was an all-volunteer effort, which changes things. Read below.

Now's a good time to ask, what the heck happened with the defeat of the bailout bill on Capitol Hill on Monday?; Debate? What debate? Oh, there's a debate tonight. The Internet has bubbled up some ways to play along with Palin vs. Biden; Wow. The Obama campaign has released a gorgeous new iPhone app; Congress has okayed a bill that requires the government to regularly and accurately assess who in the U.S. has broadband access and who doesn't. If we may humbly advance an opinion: excellent!; and a good deal more. Honest.