It's Friday, which means it's time for our weekly list of our favorite online political videos. Some of these videos have begun to go viral and spread around the web; others are here because we think they're well-produced pieces of online media.

After the jump, look out for some bizarre Icelandic rapping about Iraq; Fred Thompson asking a crowd to applause for him; and a scary deconstruction of Hillary Clinton's laughing fits.

Increasingly, new tools are empowering local "amateur" campaign staffers to produce quality content centered around local people.

Democracy Now reported this morning that the Republican lobbying firm of Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers is working for former Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi in his upcoming bid to replace current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. In preparation for this campaign, which is still in search of a scheduled election, the firm has purchase AllawiForIraq.com.

I'm not sure how far we should take this analogy, but Ron Paul is to the Republicans of 2008 as Howard Dean was to the Democrats of 2004: the one candidate speaking out prominently against the war when his colleagues were silent or supportive. Since politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, we shouldn't be surprised that he's starting to take off online.

No one doubts that MoveOn.org is one of the most powerful and versatile e-organizations of the 21st century. But a quick glance at participation rates in the group's first "Virtual Townhall" this week might make you think otherwise, as just 43,000 members voted in the straw poll that followed, not even two percent of the group's 3.2 million e-members. But figuring out what sort of participation rates matter online is a tricky process, and I think you shouldn't be fooled by these seemingly low numbers into thinking that the liberal-progressive base attached to MoveOn isn't paying attention to the primary race.

The Web on the Candidates

President Bush is now quoting bloggers, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the Caucus reports.  "I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers — they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we’ve got here," Bush said.  He quoted a passage that described improving conditions in Baghdad: "Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve."  However, the posts were written weeks ago, and were reprinted in the Wall Street Journal on March 7.  Although the Bush Administration initially stonewalled on the bloggers' identity, it was eventually disclosed that the bloggers are two dentist brothers, Omar and Mohammed Fadhil, who live in Baghdad, and who visited the White House in December 2004.

Four female advisers to Hillary Clinton hosted a web chat yesterday and according to the New York Times' Patrick Healy, the message was "All Women Should Stand With Hillary Because Hillary Will Make Life Better For All Women."  The chat topics ranged from having time for the family ("...every time that I feel pangs of guilt that I am not at home with my children, I think about how important it will be to my daughter when Hillary is president. And what a role model Hillary will be to her.") to Hillary's user of power, to the war in Iraq, to health care.