Leaders in the Republican Web movement concede they trail Democrats in their online presence at the same time Barack Obama's campaign shows just how potent the Web can be in New Hampshire.

The Washington Post's Jose Antonio Vargas reports that "no Republican comes close to matching the popularity" of Obama on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. Democrats are also ahead in the "online money race," with the top three having "amassed more than $14 million over the Internet in the first three months of 2007" compared to the top three Republicans who collected $6 million. A conservative online PAC has raised hundreds of dollars while the liberal Act Blue site has raised $3 million for Edwards alone.

The disparity may be the result of the GOP field not inspiring voters, or because the party has traditionally been a disciplined, top-down organization not prone to user-generated content and grassroots efforts. One Republican said Democrats have a larger Web-talent pool.

To put this in human terms, Obama's campaign gathered 550 volunteers with the help of the Web, a number that left them "a bit stunned," reports the Chicago Tribune's Christi Parsons.

The New York Times' Patrick Healy and Michael Cooper report that today Hillary Clinton and John McCain will debut new domestic policy proposals. Clinton's is a $5 billion healthcare plan for universal pre-kindergarten classes that would be a voluntary program for states, which would match federal dollars for the programs. From excerpts of prepared remarks, McCain's proposal is less about programs than oversight: he wants every inspector general to have direct access to department heads and promises to frequently review ethical standards.

Yesterday, Fred Thompson addressed the National Restaurant Association in Chicago where he said the immigration bill would fail because people do not trust the Senate to secure the Mexican border, reports the Jackson Sun's Bill Theobald. Thompson also warned about the economic threat posed by China that's being ignored by the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, new papers from the Reagan Justice Department have been released, offering some insight to Rudy Giuliani's time there. Though hiring was often political and Giuliani "routinely considered requests to advance the favored candidates" of Republican partisans, he did consider the "legal qualifications of the candidates and their FBI background checks, essentially screening some out and passing others on to the White House." Giuliani was given "direct authority to remove assistant U.S. attorneys who did not measure up," but said the department wouldn't change them as a result of the "change in administrations," writing that the department's work was "too important and complex to follow a policy that could lead to an abnormal turnover."

In South Carolina this weekend Mitt Romney received cheers from state Republicans during their convention when he came out against the new Senate immigration bill. Romney said a proposed new visa for immigrants amounts to amnesty if it can be renewed indefinitely. Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee were also well-received when they talked about social issues to the Florida Family Policy Council.

Get these and today's other elections stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.

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