Obama reaches 2 million donors, BarelyPolitical barely keeps my attention, McCain's tech policy review, techPresident is honored with a nomination, Obama and McCain's YouTube channels

I'm at the 18th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, being held at Yale this week, and this morning's opening session on "Presidential Technology Policy: Priorities for the Next Executive" featured representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns. The Obama camp sent the co-director of MIT's decentralized information group. The McCain camp sent the former chief patent lawyer for Time Warner. The two seemed almost hand-picked as embodiments of the two very different ways a President Obama and a President McCain would handled tech policy.

Perhaps the most influential technology-focused blog, TechCrunch, will host a series of podcasts with Presidential candidates. First up on the plate, Mitt Romney.

Let's geek out after the jump...

John Edwards has just issued a strong statement in support of net neutrality today, writing a letter to the FCC stating that the issue "goes to the heart and soul of democracy."

The Web on the Candidates

John Edwards advisor Joe Trippi is in the U.K., telling British politicians that "Internet activism is spelling the end for the age of spin." In an interview with the Guardian, Trippi talked about the always-on nature of online campaigning. "Before TV, what mattered was how your voice sounded. Then with TV it matters what your candidate looks like ... We are now moving to a medium where authenticity is king, from what things look like to what's real ... You have to be 'on' 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Trippi said. He describes the new world of politics in the "peer-to-peer social network world," in which the opinion of peers is worth more than a top-down campaign message. While no candidates in the U.S. - including Edwards -- are completely running this kind of campaign, David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party in the U.K., continues his engaged web presence with multiple videos a week and an active community blog.

The FEC has produced a very cool map showing most campaign contributions to presidential candidates (PAC money and contributions under $200 aren't represented). A bunch of bubbles are overlaid over a map of the U.S., and when you click on the name of a candidate (listed to the left) you'll see the areas that have donated to them; click on the bubbles and you'll get a close-up view of that region; click on them again and you'll see a list of individual donors and the amount they contributed. (hat tip: Hotline)