B-Logging the Race

It’s been about a year. A year since politicians from both sides of the aisle tossed their hats into the race for the White House – with the exception of Fred Thompson. Journalists have literally covered every move of the major candidates. They are called the traveling press. They pack their bags and literally travel with the press to provide Americans with information about their potential President. They file stories each day for web, print and broadcast.

Not everything that journalists see out on the trail makes news. That is where bloggers comes into play. They have the ability to add color to the campaign race. Making it more about the people and the environment then who is winning today in what early state. All the major news networks have political correspondents who have blogs on their respective websites. I subscribe to MSNBC’s http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/ and CNN Political Ticker which are these two networks political blogs that provide both news and instant analysis in the form of a blog. I get anywhere from two to four – and maybe more – emails a day about what the candidates are doing. If you don’t have the time to keep up everyday these emails provide a LOT of information on the race.

I went to New Hampshire for the primary with KDFW as part of the Fox U Team. Our marching papers? To blog, blog, and blog some more. (You can check out my blog at http://community.myfoxdfw.com/blogs/FOX_SMU_Ann_Wyatt ) There were not enough hours in the day to blog about everything interesting and offbeat that you would never know about if you didn’t have the opportunity to go to New Hampshire. The beauty of blogging from New Hampshire was that my team and I could use one platform to post still photos, interviews, video, and words.

At a Chowder Fest in Windham, New Hampshire for Mike Huckabee I spoke to one woman who has called the granite state home her whole life. She has participated in the primaries for as long as she could remember, even as a little girl. I asked her what she thought the biggest change was between this season and four years ago. Her answer? Bloggers. She said that you see more and more people with laptops and PDA’s in the back of campaign events just typing away and instantly the world knows what goes on. As an undecided Independent voter she said the compressed schedule gave her less time to make up her mind.

At a forum for John Edwards two days before the polls opened Mark Norris and I walked into a middle school cafeteria to set up with the rest of the press. As we walked in there were three women passing out cookies calling them “Seabiscuits.” Why? Because Elizabeth Edwards called her husband the “Seabiscuit” of the race. Hollywood ending for Edwards in New Hampshire? No. I had not seen this done at any other event and there was something unique and yet desperate about it.

In what critics refer to as the "horserace" coverage that journalists are producing it might not be such a bad idea to have these political blogs or logs to keep taps on all of the potential Seabiscuits of the race.