The Web on the Candidates

• John Edwards decided not to fire bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen for things they wrote before he hired them, receiving acclaim from the left and the right, respectively. "This is all being made up as we go along," said Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network in the Times' wrap-up, which compared the Edwards bloggers' statements to inflammatory statements made by Patrick J. Hynes, the conservative blogger hired by John McCain.
• Glenn Greenwald claims success at getting the "MSM" to balance the story: "[the blogosphere] forced into the public discussion critical facts that were being omitted and which exposed the absurdity of this story, thereby providing a counterweight to the joint right-wing/media pressure on Edwards to capitulate to these forces." John Palfrey calls the attacks on Edwards' bloggers "an extension of classic opposition research. It points to some of the risks at having people blog on behalf of a campaign in an official capacity." Phil Noble adds, "we have a new technology that's disrupting the whole political process, and we haven't figured out what the rules are."
• Ben Smith of the Politico writes that the religious left feels neglected in the debate over John Edwards' bloggers. He quotes Cornell University law professor Eduardo Penalver: "We're completely invisible to this debate... As a constituency, the Christian left isn't taken all that seriously."
• Conservative bloggers have long been skeptical of John McCain -- actually, according a CBS News report, "despite leading in polls of GOP primary voters, many conservative bloggers don't like him and don't trust him." Says Ed Morrissey from Captain's Quarters, "I'm not going to say I'll never support the guy, but he would really have to convince me. I know, though, that some of my readers have already written they would stay home or vote for the Democrat if the Republicans went with McCain."
• Jeff Jarvis wonders whether the much-touted "conversation" engendered by the web is anathema to traditional campaigns, which are deathly afraid of honest, frank conversation. "Blogs, Facebooks, MySpace pages, YouTube videos — you might say that they will haunt us. But I prefer to think that they will force us to be more open, more honest. Maybe then we’ll have no choice but to have a real conversation."
• The ghosts of Al Gore's political past are building a campaign to draft him into the presidential race. Several web sites and petitions have popped up to do the same.

The Candidates on the Web

• The Sam Brownback campaign has hired RedState's Leon H. Wolf to be its "e-campaign coordinator."
• The Washington Post reports that the Edwards campaign has spent $500K on web operations and internet consultants to date.

Hillary's blog countdown

• Eighteen days and counting: no campaign blog for Hillary Clinton.