There are some rather admirably bold and rather sneaky things afoot over at MyDD.

They have this plan to influence the information that voters will see in the last remaining days before the November 7th election they call “Google-Bombing the Election.”

Bowers writes (my emphasis)…

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the number one way that voters use the Internet for political action is to search for information on candidates. During the final two weeks of the election, it is reasonable to expect that as many as twenty million voters will be searching for information on candidates online. During this key time, this project will help push the most negative article written by a non-partisan media source on all key Republican candidates to the forefront of any search for that candidate. The negative article will appear both high on all Google searches for the candidates, and as an advertisement that appears whenever anyone searches for that candidate. By giving this article two prominent locations on Google searches for the candidate, and because it will come from a non-partisan source, it will increase the likelihood that the article will be seen and trusted by those searching for information on the candidate.

Man, is that some evil genius thinking, or what? And, in a matter of a few hours, they got most of the articles that they needed.

Also, in partnership now with MoveOn, they’re doing this really tough plan called Use or Lose It, that’s designed to guilt Democrats in safe seats to donate more money to candidates in the rapidly expanding list of possibly competitive races.

Again, Bowers…

Call the ultra-safe Democrats in your state on this list. When you call, you will be told that these Democrats have already given money to Democratic challengers and party committees. Don’t be daunted: Here are several ways to respond:

* Tell them that you know they have already given this cycle, but our target list hasn’t been this deep–60-70 Republicans seats!–in over twenty years, and it needs to be fully funded, so they need to give more.
* Tell them the grassroots have never given this much before, and safe Democratic incumbents need to do the same.
* Tell them the DCCC and the DNC are taking out loans of more than $10 million in order to fund seats that have not been competitive in a decade.
* Tell them the time to buy new media is running out, and with every passing day, media buys will become more expensive for our candidates.

MyDD also weighs in on the surprising (not) news that Barack Obama’s thinking about running for president.

Matt Stoller writes a reasonably sober piece on the prospect…

Though you probably know me as someone who’s not a fan of Barack Obama, I do want the Senator to run for President in 2008. I think it would be good for him, good for the party, and good for the country. I’m big on process, on public debate, on public deliberation, and we need his voice in the fray. We need to hear from him, what’s his vision? What are his principles? What kind of America does he support? How will he stand up to pressure when he is debating other Democrats? In other words, what, exactly is his voice? Is he the Barack Obama who criticizes our political system for its smallness, its lack of vision, as he puts it in his stump speech? Or is he the Barack Obama who praises George Bush, and goes along and gets along in the Senate, ruffling no feathers and making sure that the smallness of our system is what he embraces? Or is the Barack Obama that thinks that this country is not ready for the sacrifices he knows are coming, and so will revel in his symbolic emptiness?

I think there are two keys to understanding Barack. The first is to look at his formative political experience, the seering loss to machine politician Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary in 2000. Before Brand Obama emerged, the Senator got destroyed by bucking the system. Losing to a machine, as Cory Booker also did, does strange things to idealistic-appearing hyperambitious politicians. It makes them a lot more wary of picking fights and making enemies, and it makes them a lot more inclined to cultivate chits and work within a system they know isn’t working.

Well, I think it’s admirable to try to logically predict the pitfalls awaiting Obama if he ends up running, but c’mon…

He’s a superstar.

Despite how frustrating his actions in the Senate have been thus far to many of us in the Netroots, I doubt that anything can knock him off his rock star pedestal. Just read the latest Time magazine cover article.

I predict he’ll run, win the nomination, and win the Presidency with the widest margin since Reagan.

And finally, also in Time, I’d like to highlight the close to a rather favorable ariticle on Dean and the 50 state strategy.

I sometimes wonder if the editorial policy the world over is that the “Scream” must be referenced in any article about our former favorite Republican Governor (my emphasis)…

That Dean’s project might pay dividends this year is surprising to everyone, including its creator. “I didn’t expect much to come of this strategy for four or even six years,” Dean told TIME. And if one of the red-state candidates wins, Dean may show he can scream even louder in vindication than he once did in defeat.