As the dust settles on the Democratic primary fight, I think more people are going to be turning their attention to understanding the significance of the new kind of political machine the Obama campaign has been building. Matt Stoller, one of my favorite netroots writers, has a great stab in this direction over on OpenLeft with a post he titled "Obama's Consolidation of the Party." I'm not sure I agree with all of his conclusions about Obama's dominating and remaking the Democratic Party, but there's surely huge potential in their blending of top-down message discipline, net-centric outreach, Alinsky-UFW-Ganz-inspired field work, Camp Obama trainings, Obama Organizing Fellows, and a new 50-state voter registration effort.

Whether Obama wins or loses in the fall, this network is going to be a game-changer. So I'm planning to spend more time digging in and writing about its internal dynamics, culture and leaders.

More on young voters in 2008; lost votes in California?; Ben Smith shares the labor and the smarts; Real Clear Politics earns some kudos; Matt Stoller reinvents campaign finance reform; Patrick Leahy wants the Founding Fathers online; what went wrong for Mitt Romney; McCain aide shares some secrets; GOP "money-bomb" bombs; Josh reports from Italy; our favorite videos; and some reality checks to end the week.

Matt Stoller looks for ways to organize the netroots against a Hillary Clinton candidacy; a new widget from Rock the Vote makes it easy to create your own voter registration program; James Durban implores conservative groups to back Rock the Vote and steer it away from liberal groups; and Mike Huckabee challenges Fred Thompson to a Lincoln-Douglas debate.

We're going to try something new here at techPresident; every Friday we're going to post our semi-subjective, semi-scientific list of the best new political videos of the week. We're focusing on voter-generated content, though when a campaign puts something out that is unavoidable or genuinely interesting, we'll include it too. For this week's winners, read past the jump...

With the top 50 political blogs getting 95% of the traffic, has a Blogosphere Establishment formed? Does the word blogger suffice to describe people who may be practicing journalism, activism or campaigning for a candidate, sometimes all at once, sometimes not? Should top bloggers practice a kind of affirmative action in who they link to or highlight? Six top political bloggers tackle these questions and others...

[We're going to post text or excerpts from the proceedings of PdF2007 here as fast as we can get them. (And we're also working to get footage from the mainhall sessions up online too, but that will take til tomorrow.) MyDD blogger Matt Stoller gave a great talk explaining the rise of the netroots, which he abridged slightly because time was tight; we're thrilled to publish the full text below. The editors.]

A few years ago, I had what's called a 'crazy uncle' theory of internet politics. I noticed that the figures who did well online all seemed like a crazy uncle saying things that are true but extremely uncomfortable, that power and authority was built on silly illusions. You know, it's like when you're a kid at Thanksgiving and your uncle starts telling you about how much pot your parents smoked, which you had never really known about. It's uncomfortable but kind of awesome.

Are Democrats beating the Republicans online? I'd argue so...and I'm a Republican.

Weigh in on this thread. Tell me I'm wrong. Argue other points we're all missing. Stand up and be counted in this important debate.

In short, dig in...