Round ups of the conservative blogosphere make it clear that the GOP contest is wide open; Ron Paul supporters may be getting the shaft on Digg and PayPal; Ars Technica decides the New Hampshire vote controversy isn't a big deal; Google announces Checkout for Political Contributions; and John Edwards' ad contest yields pretty creative entries.

Declan McCullagh suggested yesterday that it was the offline efforts, not the online efforts that won the day in New Hampshire Tuesday:

"In other words, it was anything but high-tech. Sure, there were robo-calls and e-mail alerts, but, for the most part, the local events that convinced voters to pick Clinton and McCain could have been convened at any point in the last century."

While I agree with Declan's argument that face-to-face interaction between candidates and voters is essential, there are clearly ways that the internet can enhance the success of these interactions. For example, online organizing on Facebook and MySpace can increase the attendence at offline town meetings. Recall one of Barack Obama's first rallies at George Mason University. Using Facebook to drive attendance, more than 10,000 people showed up to here him speak. Of course, many would have learned of the event without the Internet, but it stands to reason that the use of Facebook "kicked it up a notch."

Over the last few days, I've been compiling screenshots of the candidate homepages and interesting things the candidates are doing on their sites to memorialize what these sites were like in the campaign's final sprint. What did visitors to Hillary and McCain's sites see after their all-important victories? Browse through the slideshow below for a comparative perspective.

I love political videos on YouTube as much as anyone, but sometimes the filmmaker in me yearns for something more than one- or two-minute voter-generated videos in support of one candidate or against another. The political web can be so hyper-focused on the moment that I’m still surprised when folks take a step back and produce in-depth videos and analyses about what makes voters tick.

Yet two projects -- Purple States and Hope for Change -- do just this.

The campaign that begins tomorrow, with expensive states like Florida and South Carolina coming before the “Tsunami Tuesday” of February 5th, will require millions in staff, direct mail, and television advertising. In the past, it's been hard for candidates to take in money quickly enough to keep going after they'd spent everything. Will online donations change things?

According to Google Trends, Barack Obama has been the subject of more Google searches than any other presidential candidate, and aside from Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee he blows everyone else out of the water. And he's exploding on YouTube.

While we were sleeping, there was a Wyoming primary, but few candidates mention the results on their sites; The Barocket is back! Barack Obama's online popularity has skyrocketed since his win in Iowa; Facebook's role in Saturday's debates may have underwhelmed, but it did give voters a chance to spout off; Ron Paul is excluded from yesterday's GOP debate and no one really knows why; citizen journalists the Uptake post a video about their process in Iowa; and Joe Garofoli describes the intricate dance campaigns perform to turn online support into offline action and to court the youth vote.

The first U.S. presidential primary of 2008 is over and it was full of surprises. After the first inning, we have an unexpected lead, thanks to Mike Huckabee connecting to intact networks that had a long history together, while Mitt Romney connected to individual voters -- one at a time. We have heard that "all politics are local", now we also find out that "all politics are social".

As we race into the most compact primary schedule ever and the top two candidates for the Democrats continue to dominate the polls, I’ve realized that campaigns are a lot like ball games: the key ingredient that makes them both so much fun to watch is the tiniest possibility that an underdog can win. Therefore, with the help of a number of New Hampshire-ites, I’ve designed a blueprint for victory for John Edwards that isn’t about squeezing the very last dime out of bundlers and other donors but leveraging the commerce of the 21st century: social networks. Here’s your Win Free or Die in New Hampshire Blueprint strategy courtesy of me — no charge.

Obama's student organizing in New Hampshire is hitched to Facebook founder and Obama staffer Chris Hughes, who all day yesterday drove students to vote absentee in the Granite State's Jan. 8 primary. The event was organized through Facebook, of course.