Windows on the Web: Crunching Numbers on Campaign Trail

By Bruce Kratofil
NABE Webmaster

Depending upon where you live, you may have just endured a Super Tuesday onslaught of political advertising and news or you may be gearing up for a future attack. Here in Ohio, the primary is March 3, so the campaign appearances and ads are coming our way.

You don’t have to rely on 30-second commercials or sound bites on the TV news for your political coverage. There are a number of specialized political sites that can cater to your need for in-depth political news. It’s easy enough to find political coverage in the mainstream media (MSM), so here’s some information on Web-oriented sites.

RealClearPolitics

RealClearPolitics.com serves as both a clearinghouse of political news from other sources, as well as original content. The site’s own description, from the About page, says:  “Founded in 2000 by John McIntyre and Tom Bevan, Chicago-based RealClearPolitics.com (RCP) has become one of America’s premier independent political websites. Updated every morning and throughout the day, RCP culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day. RealClearPolitics has become a trusted filter for anyone interested in politics.”

RCP’s very cluttered home page devotes the top of the center column to links of stories around the Web for all sides of the political spectrum. It also has a set of links to newspaper editorials and to longer analysis pieces. More important, the front page includes both a brief delegate count and a link to a state-by-state breakdown of delegates. The site also links to poll results, as well as averaging out the various polls to come to a consensus.

Deeper on the site, they have their own blog, links to political videos on YouTube, and RealClearPolitics Fantasy '08, a market-based game for the 2008 election where you are given $10,000 in play money to trade various contracts, such as on the outcome of the presidential race, the primary races, or other regional races. As of Feb. 9, the bid price for Obama being the Democratic nominee was 59.50, while the bid price for Clinton was 40.60.

Politico

Politico.com seems to be pitched more towards the inside-the-Beltway political junkies. On the About page, the site is described as:  “The Politico launched in January, 2007 with the mission of covering the politics of Capitol Hill and of the presidential campaign, and the business of Washington lobbying and advocacy with enterprise, style, and impact. The Politico is a publication of Capitol News Company, LLC.”

It features much more of its own content (it also has a print publication), has its own multimedia section, and also tracks delegates. Delegate counting must be imprecise, because its totals are different from RealClearPolitics.

Politico.com also has its own game, called Kingmaker. In this game, you make predictions and get points for correct predictions with the goal of making a name for yourself among political pundits and with an invitation to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner as a prize. (We’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine whether that’s a better prize than the pretend money you get at RealClearPolitics.)

Blogger Networks

A huge number of bloggers are ready to give their political opinion on the Web. Two sites, with distinct points of view, have gathered a number of them together to make for a more efficient use of your blogging time.

A site that is more conservative (or at least much more hawkish on the War on Terror) is Pajamas Media, a name created after an MSM executive scoffed that bloggers were just a bunch of people sitting around in their pajamas in front of computers. They have a number of military bloggers (people who actually served or worked in Iraq and Afghanistan) and reporters, not just commentators. Thus it is heavily into foreign affairs as well as politics.

A site from the left is the Huffington Post, founded by Arianna Huffington. In addition to politics, you will find more media and culture blogging here, along with a number of celebrity writers such as Harry Shearer, Rosie O’Donnell, and Laurie David.

And Finally...

With springtime around the  corner, many people think automatically about warm weather, outdoors, or gardening. On the other hand, some people immediately think about fantasy baseball. The third season of NABE Fantasy Baseball is coming up. If you want to play (and beginners are welcome) let us know . We hope to start on a live draft sometime after the first of March, so contact us soon. You can find out more about NABE Fantasy Baseball here.