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Judging by Obama's savvy use of social-networking sites during his campaign and the interactive nature of his transition team's Web site, Americans can expect a president who bypasses the traditional media's filters while reaching out to citizens for input, observers say. "The rebooting of our democracy has begun," said Andrew Rasiej, founder of Personal Democracy Forum and the techPresident blog. "[Obama] has the potential to transform the relationship between the American public and their democracy."

Until now, the political Establishment has ignored the West. At best, the region has been treated as a colony to be exploited by East Coast industrialists and West Coast white-flighters. More often, it is portrayed as American Siberia, with celebrity blowhards occasionally dropping in to pen patronizing stories mimicking zoological travelogues.

Weclome to SpeechWars, a great way to see what the candidates are saying. Simply type in a word, click "Go", and SpeechWars shows you how often the candidates used the word in their speeches. You can also compare two words by using both text boxes.

The United States Library of Congress has selected SpeechWars for inclusion in its official historic collections of Internet materials related to Election 2008. The United States Library of Congress preserves the Nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people to foster education and scholarship extend to digital materials, including Web sites. The Library will make this collection available to researchers. The Library's vision is to preserve these Web materials about Election 2008, and to permit researchers from across the world to access them.

Just as the candidates have learned to use novel technology tools to reach young people during this year's presidential campaign, teachers like Mr. Sherif are turning to electronic resources to capture students' interest in the election. At the same time, they want to help students decipher the barrage of related images and information and to engage them in lessons about the democratic process today and throughout American history. "The technology is fun and helpful, but it's also a tool you can use to get a better understanding of what the political and historical issues are," said Mr. Sherif, who teaches history and science at the Science Leadership Academy, a public high school in Philadelphia.

The Democratic Party's outreach to young people and to people of faith seems to be paying off. A new survey on faith and American politics shows Democratic nominee Barack Obama making inroads among some believers and moving ahead of Republican John McCain among Roman Catholics, largely because of young Catholics' support. In the biggest shift over the past four years, Senator Obama now wins the backing of 60 percent of voters who attend religious services once or twice a month, a jump from the 49 percent the Democratic nominee won in 2004.

The Measure of a President: During the Presidential campaign, much has been made of Barack Obama's slender physique, with some commentators going so far as to argue that he is too thin for most Americans to relate to him. Does...

To test your knowledge of prominent people and major events in the news, we invite you to take our short quiz. Then see how you did in comparison with 1,003 randomly sampled adults asked the same questions in a recent national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. For an analysis of the findings from the poll on the public's News IQ, read the full summary of findings.

A fascinating quiz that students could take (teachers too) that would provide some very engaging conversations about current events. You can compare your News IQ with the average scores of men and women; with college graduates as well as those who didn't attend college; with people who are your age as well as with younger and older Americans.

Nice basic lesson plan for K-2 students to help them understand the concept of voting on a ballot and having a reason for voting the way they did.

Lesson plan for K-2 students from HotChalk lesson plans page. Uses 3 little pics and asks kids to vote on which version of the story they believe. Helps kids understand what happens when you vote on a ballot.