I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joe Trippi a week ago, as we both were in DC for the launch of Larry Lessig's new Change-Congress project. (Joe is working with Larry on CC, and the Sunlight Foundation, which I consult for, was co-sponsoring Larry's speech). If you watch closely, you can see Larry in the background of the first video, in fact. In general, the lack of production values suggests I should stick to my day job, I know. But we covered a lot of interesting ground, as you'll see...

I'm at the National Press Club for the launch of Stanford Prof. Larry Lessig's new project, Change-Congress.org. He's here as part of Sunshine Week, and his speech is co-sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation (which I consult for) as well as the Omidyar Network. As you may know, last year, Lessig decided to shift his focus from the fight for free culture to the fight for a clean government. Here are my notes on his talk, paraphrasing as best as I can...

Trippi warns about Obama's blue-collar support; Jerome Armstrong mocks Chris Bowers; will the "emerging church" go for Obama?; Lessig aims to Change-Congress; Blogger flophouses in DC make the front page; inside Obama's Texas field operation; Ron Paul says he's still running; and we add the VP field to our charts.

It's the big day! We'll be liveblogging here at techPres starting at around 7:30; "if web traffic equalled votes.." If only!; Barack Obama is officially the hockey-stick candidate; MTV's Street Team '08 fans out across the country; a majority of Facebook users tell pollsters that Hillary Clinton would be a bad choice for president; Tim Wu on Net neutrality and Obama; two polls from LinkedIn and MySpace give show a preference for Obama; Noam Scheiber interviews Joe Trippi; Obama is encouraging supporters to email and call their friends, even if they're too busy watching the "Yes We Can" video; a look at the candidates use of technology in the final push before Super Tuesday; and why Fred Thompson's blog was good, even if his campaign, er, wasn't.

Joe Trippi is one of the few political consultants who speaks frankly, even to the detriment of his clients, and loves democracy even more than he loves politics. I caught up with him for an hour-long conversation about his work for the John Edwards campaign, why Hillary Clinton might be the Howard Dean of 2008, and how the Iowa caucus is like the Internet.

There's nothing wrong with political campaigns trying to build up their email lists. Nor is there anything wrong with doing it by riding the news and connecting their campaign priorities to voters' concerns. But when is someone going to do more than aggrandize their own power, and actually do something that builds real people power?

The Politico launches a young voter-themed sub-site; Debate Porridge calls the campaigns on a Saturday and finds that most of them aren't working; interesting numbers about the effectiveness of campaigns' web effectiveness from the Politico's Ryan Grim and Compete.com; a puff piece about Joe Trippi tracks his rise to de facto campaign manager of the Edwards campaign; and Stephen Colbert passes Bill Richardson in a poll and more than 500,000 are members of a pro-Colbert Facebook group.

Beating up on Times political reporter Adam Nagourney is a hobby gleefully enjoyed in many corners of the Interweb, but now that he's ventured onto OUR turf, it's time for a quick barrage of jabs, hooks and vicious undercuts, e.politics-style. Why? Writing Wednesday about Joe Trippi and the John Edwards web team, Nagourney shows exactly how well he can channel a campaign's spin uncritically and without context.

Now, Joe Trippi is a damn smart guy and the Edwards folks may well be using the 'net in interesting ways, but the only way you'd know it from THIS article is because they tell us they are, not because Nagourney shows any actual evidence. This key paragraph lets us know what we're in for:

Not only should Republicans be worrying about how their presidential candidates run the YouTube gauntlet at their September debate in St. Petersburg, Democratic web maven Joe Trippi tells David All that in the general election, they face being completely overwhelmed by the "gigantic community" the Democratic field is generating online.

On Monday I went to Charleston, S.C. for the Dems' YouTube/CNN debate. I was planning on live-blogging the debate, and man did I have a great seat, but given the intense level of security at the Citadel (no electronics whatsoever), that wasn't an option.

I did however grab my camera to talk with some of the candidates and Internet strategists after the debate in the "spin room." And thankfully, some of them were willing to give away some free advice for the Republican candidates for the upcoming YouTube/CNN debate in Florida on September 17. (Submit your questions here.)

Below the fold find short vlogs with Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Joe Trippi (Edwards), Peter Leyden (New Politics Institute), Danny Glover (National Journal), and Steve Peterson (Bivings, YouTube user).

The buffet line for vlogs begins after the jump...