The open-source campaign for Obama just keeps adding more star power. We’ve never seen a campaign so comfortable letting its most passionate supporters, stars or not, take responsibility for spreading the candidate’s core message. This is advertising you could never pay for.

We’re literally seeing the rules of politics being reinvented in this campaign. I promise you, you will not have a Hillary-Clinton-In-New-Hampshire moment watching her latest, tired, fearmongering ad:

YES WE CAN HAS

We’re featuring this over on the Video Feed as well, but for my money this is the open-source ad in the 2008 campaign:

Better even than this now-classic mashup:

Shepard Fairey endorses Obama.

Whoa!
I don’t know what’s more amazing — the sum total. Or the fact that this Republican fund-raising surge is all somehow in honor of terrorist, er, anarchist, er, V-For-Vendetta antihero Guy Fawkes.

Whatever you make of Paul, he and his supporters just pulled off, organically, through weird YouTube videos like this one…

… something we haven’t seen since Howard Dean.

Money that pulls in money. It’s like cold fusion for campaign finance. The question: Can this reaction sustain itself for more than a day?

UPDATE: For the members of the Paul Patrol who feel I’ve wronged your candidate, I’ve created an open thread wherein you can preach his virtues. Keep it positive, people.

If you missed the YouTube debate you missed out. I was worried this was going to be dumb or cheesy or dumb and cheesy. Instead it was quirky, heartfelt, entertaining, tough and substantive. By far the best debate of the season.

UPDATE: Check out the complete highlight reel at Veracifier.

Hillary Clinton kicked a whole lot of ass. She was polished. Poised. Presidential. She really does have a presence and a power on stage. She looks every bit the frontrunner. I only wish Gravel had put her on the spot about her bundlers and her Wall Street money. Obama took most of the real heat in this debate, and I think did a nice bit of political judo to keep from absorbing a direct blow. It’d be nice to see someone challenge Clinton directly, rather than nibble around the edges about her triangulation (Edwards) or her lack of a specific health care plan (Obama). My guess is she’d acquit herself ably — but that’s only a guess.

Clinton certainly inflicted some damage, pouncing on Obama’s over-eager agreement to a YouTuber’s challenge to meet face to face with Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez etc., offering a more serious answer about using high level envoys to ensure that she were not participating in a “propaganda” effort by our enemies. It made Obama look callow, and reinforced her talking point of the evening about being the best candidate to “hit the ground running” in November January 2009.

Clinton must be loving the huge group. Her top competitors had some nice moments last night. Edwards talking about the Virginian who lived with a cleft palate for 50 years. Obama alfa dogging Gravel. Biden and Richardson showed they had game too. But there’s so much competition for airtime that it’s impossible to get any momentum and have a truly breakout night.

The gay marriage questions were outrageously disappointing. Folks: separate but equal institutions are against every moral fiber your party is supposed to stand for. If he weren’t so smug about his stance, I’d be giving Dennis Kucinich some mad props right now.

The candidate videos were a fun addition. John Edwards’ campaign’s Hair video hit it out of the park. One question: Where was this six weeks ago?

One last thought. Clinton/Obama/Edwards/Biden/Richardson. The Democrats have five candidates on that stage who would be a stronger nominee than John Kerry was. Even the inhumanly senatorial Chris Dodd would have given Kerry a run for the money.

What did you think of the format and the substance?

“It’s fucking Skull and Bones, man. The very secretive, behind-closed-doors nature of it is anathema to everything that blogging is supposed to be about: accountability. We are supposed to be showing the way, not skulking around behind closed doors, coming up with strategies. Those are the people who we’re trying to fight. I know about ‘the real world’ and all that shit. But we’re the idealists, aren’t we?”