Before Broadway shows open in New York City, they're often taken for a trial run out in the American heartland to work out the kinks. And with this latest four-minute installment in Barack Obama's pre-presidential video productions posted on YouTube, you definitely get the feeling that somewhere there's an obsessive director making tweaks before taking a more polished show to Washington DC in seven weeks. (The video's down below.)

"Does the Internet Matter?;" The Long Campaign's Lessons for Non-Profits; Should Obama Be Relying on YouTube?; The Promise and Peril of a Wired White House; Register Your Favorites in the Mashable Awards; A Gift from Us to You; and more.

Building a Better Bully Pulpit; We the People 2.0; We Have the Tools to Finally Pop the White House Bubble; Government is Cool Again; Japan's Online Politics (or Lack Thereof); Ideas for Change, and a Road Map; and a good deal more.

President-elect Barack Obama is out with the second of his weekly bite-sized video messages to the American public, billed as "Your Weekly Address" and posted on both Change.gov and YouTube. (Though there's no Google monopoly at work here. Obama's video addresses are posted not only on the search giant's video site but on MSN Video and Yahoo! Video as well -- though you do have to squint a bit to see the links to the non-YouTube postings.)

In this week's four-minute spot, Obama talks with urgency about the economic situation facing the country, saying that struggling Americans "need help, and they need it now." The President-elect details the serious need for an economic recovery plan, and talks about directing his economic team to craft an ambitious plan that will create 2.5 million jobs by the start of 2011.

Obama's in a tough spot, though. He's eager to demonstrate that he gets that the U.S. is in dire straits. But as President-elect, he doesn't have a tremendous amount of official power. He's pledged to do this weekly YouTube address until January 20th, which, by my count, means eight more times he'll go before us to provide his insight into a government he's not yet helming.

You might have heard that President-elect Barack Obama posted a speech billed as "Your Weekly Address" to YouTube this weekend. What was largely a three-and-a-half-minute stump speech on the economy -- made presidential-ish by virtue of being delivered from behind a desk and in front of legal tomes -- now has more than 700,000 views, as our Micah Sifry notes. First, a dose of bah humbug...; There are a lot of life changes in store for President Obama -- new job, new house, new school for his girls. And now he has to give up his beloved Blackberry, too?; Google.org's Larry Brilliant, reports ZDNet's Tim Ferguson, says that it's now the job of the technology industry to help save the world; and a good helping more.

The Los Angeles Times' Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger have a look inside the debate happening over what should happen to the robust online network built by the Obama campaign; NextGov's Allan Holmes looks at some of the contenders to be the nation's first Chief Technology Officer and concludes that "honchos from Silicon Valley are not that suitable for this position;" Slate's Christopher Beam asks if the sort of transparency promised by the Obama campaign is unequivocally good; and a good deal more.

How much is YouTube worth to a presidential campaign? We got some friends to run the numbers for Obama and McCain, and the numbers may astound you.

This election cycle has given rise to a number of independent fact check sites, from Factcheck.org and PolitFact.com to those run by various newspapers. But now some are wondering if there's a downside to so many truth sniffers; A brand new public service announcement up on YouTube features the obscured face of a "famous Hollywood actress" making the case that what matters isn't her world renown, but that you get out and vote; Looking at how and where campaigns, lobbying groups, and 527s as spending ad cash is a fascinating perspective on their election strategy; and quite a bit more.

PBS is teaming up with YouTube to put together Video Your Vote, a project that asks voters to document and share their Election Day experiences. (I'd imagine, though, that your early-voting trips to the ballot box are welcomed as well -- or, if you live in Oregon, when you, you know, lick the envelope and put your vote in the mail box.); Comedian Sarah Silverman made a splash recently with her rather dirty call for Jewish kids to haul themselves down to Florida over Columbus Day weekend and sell their grandparents on "the goodest person we've ever had as a presidential choice," known to the rest of us as Barack Obama. But did the Great Schlep amount to bupkes?; The Obama campaign is taking steps to combat misleading emails floating around from seemingly earnest supporter that spread untruths about voting; and a good deal more.

Just how many upcoming events does each candidate have near Orlando, Florida and Dayton, Ohio; how many bloggers are writing the phrase "voting for McCain" vs "voting for Obama"; and just how many times did Obama mention the word "pie" the other day in West Philly? Here's the latest meta-data from the social web...