Joe The Plumber, The Presidential Debates & Search, Search Engine Land.

Anyone watching tonight’s US Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama heard both candidates speak directly to “Joe The Plumber” several times. No, it’s not a fictional Joe. No, it’s not Sarah Palin’s Joe Six Pack. He’s a real person that Obama spoke to earlier this past weekend about economic concerns and taxation. But if you’re turning to search engines to find more about him, as many are, there are a lot of surprises along the way.

Confirmed: Obama Is Campaigning on Xbox 360, GigaOM.

“I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout,” Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games.

FCC Paves Way For Free Wi-Fi, InformationWeek.

The commission had considered auctioning off the frequencies in the 2,155-2,175 MHz band and requiring the winner to offer free Wi-Fi across the United States. Wireless carriers had been opposed to this initiative because of potential interference.

It's Bam TV: Barack Obama buys a half hour of prime time on CBS, NBC, NY Daily News.

The Democratic presidential nominee has purchased 30 minutes of primetime TV on CBS and NBC for a massive infomercial that will be broadcast six days before Election Day, sources familiar with the deal told the Daily News. A spokesman for the two networks declined comment.

NRCC cuting back ad buys, Politico.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, after reserving advertising time in 26 Congressional districts, has begun to cancel or dramatically scale back some of its ad reservations across the country. Many of the hardest-hit candidates are among the GOP’s leading challengers.

Tell America To Google The Facts!

Another Way To Follow The Campaign: Dipity’s Election Center Timelines, TechCrunch. 

Want to follow every Tweet, blog post, YouTube video and Flickr photo put out by the Obama or McCain camps? Now you can follow the campaigns in a handy Dipity Election Center timeline.

Decision 2008, The Internet Changed Everything, Adotas. 

In 1996, when home Internet access was slow and relatively novel for most Americans, award-winning journalist Graeme Browning released her prophetic book titled “Electronic Democracy: Using The Internet To Transform American Politics” The title speaks for itself, and her book became an indispensable resource for those who were spearheading the online revolution as it pertains to politics.

Hulu's live debate streaming—cable's worst nightmare?, Ars Technica.

Hulu might well choose not to go forward with live, streaming TV for strategic reasons, but it's hard not to see tonight's experiment as a test run for the technology. Why else would Hulu even bother? The debates have been getting wall-to-wall coverage, they will be broadcast on over-the-air TV and cable, streamed from sites like CNN and MSNBC, and covered on the radio.

US candidates employ tech power, BBC News. 

Ethan Eilon from the collegerepublicans.org has been campaigning for the Republican Party through a network called Storm.

"It allows our members to join up with the rest of their chapter and the rest of their state organisation, get involved with events that are going on, communicate with one another.

"They also earn impact points so that we can then incentivise them to go out and do all the hard work that needs to be done between now and November," he said. 

Web-Use Reform Happy Ending, Sunlight Foundation.

In May of 2007, the Sunlight Foundation released the Open House Project report, which included an entire chapter on the issue of Franking Reform. That chapter, prepared by David All and Paul Blumental, has guided our advocacy and discussions of web use restrictions since then.

New Ad: Lies and Sighs.

Dishonorable Ifill, National Review Online.

It's interesting that energy, Palin's signature issue, never came up in the form of a question; she mentioned it in relation to questions about climate change and carbon emissions. As Ace noted, it's interesting that abortion never came up, nor guns. Nothing on earmarks, government waste, or much on the budget.

RNC Launches New Web Video: “BarackBook”, RNC.

Please see our new web ad, “Barackbook”

Find out more at Barackbook.com

Senate Bailout Bill Includes Tech Tax Credit Extension, eWeek.

The R&D tax credit, which expired in December for the 13th time since Congress first authorized the tax break in 1981, covers up to 20 percent of qualified research and development spending and is considered vital to innovation by the technology sector. Although popular with lawmakers, the credit has been held hostage to a larger tax bill pending before Congress.

Ifill’s book was no secret, Politico.

Not to mention, Ifill discussed it with Howard Schultz last month in the Washington Post, in the only profile she's done before the debate. (And I'd imagine someone in the campaign should have read it).

Congress Gets Closer to Forcing a Broadband Census, GigaOM. 

The Senate on Friday passed a bill aimed at improving information about broadband competitiveness — or lack thereof. Following similar legislation that passed the House last fall, the Broadband Data Improvement Act act was passed in the Senate. Now the two sides must hash out a compromise bill and send it to the president.

Liberals, conservatives ask for Internet-friendly debates, CNET

What can liberal commentator Arianna Huffington and Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich agree on? At the very least, that the presidential debates should be more Internet-friendly.