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.

The Republican CNN/YouTube debate is this Wednesday, and certain videos are getting "weeded out"; one writer suggests that we could be in a "banner moment for unmediated political action"; Jersey City's WFMU launches a Rudy 9/11 remix contest; pro-Hilary bloggers launch (and close) and ill-fated program to pay pro-Clinton commenters; Ron Paul beats Mike Huckabee at the "money bomb" game; another Paul haul is planned for Dec. 16; Digg lanuches a Digg the Canddiates page; Amy Schatz writes about Ron Paul supporters' aggressive tactics with the media, ensures hundreds of angry emails; the Clinton campaign gets cozy with Drudge; picking apart the candidates' email strategies; and two videos that might help you forget it's Monday.

Karl Rove joins Markos Moulitsas at Newsweek, dogs and cats live together; does Media Matters favor Hiillary Clinton over the other dems?; the Iowa Independent predicts the winners of the Iowa caucuses; a video from Brave New Films criticizing Fox News gets banned on Digg; John McCain is up next in the MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue series; bloggers galore at the 2008 Democratic convention; get yourself a "We Look Like Facebook" t-shirt today!; and Barack Obama's tech policy is up in super-accessible HTML format.

The Web on the Candidates

More on the Ron Paul madness: although Paul barely registers in nationwide polls about the Republican presidential contenders, he actually won ABC's online poll following last week's Republican debate, garnering more than 9,400 of 11,000 votes as of mid-day Monday. ABC News, which apparently feels like it's been punk'd, chalks it up to "Paul supporters [who] have mastered the art of 'viral marketing,' using Internet savvy and blog postings to create at least the perception of momentum for his long-shot presidential bid." Meanwhile, Todd Zeigler has a more lengthy analysis of why Paul is so hot on Digg, noting that, in the absence of mainstream coverage, Paul's supporters are turning to Digg (Democrat Mike Gravel is also starting to get dugg), and Digg readers have been receptive. The result? A submission trying to get Paul on the Daily Show has attracted over 5,500 diggs.

DomeNation, the bi-partisan Internet TV project started by MyDD's Jerome Armstrong TechPresident's David All, posted its first interview yesterday, with Senator John Kerry. Kerry was open and friendly during the interview, in which, among other things, he discussed YouTube and the role of the Internet in politics. He talked about posting on Firedoglake and name-checked an impressive array of bloggers. "They're the new medium, the new ways of communicating with people... they've been a terrific truth and accountability squad," he said.