Political Junkies Only

Patrick Ruffini, Republican pollster/blogger, has unveiled his 2008 Presidential Election Tracker.

Here's how it works. Throughout the day, the Wire goes out and scours blog and MSM feeds for news about 22 potential Presidential candidates, both Democrat and Republican. The result is a tool where you can not only read all the news about a particular candidate, but where these stories are compiled, analyzed, and tested against underlying trends. Who's the most discussed political leader on blogs right now? Who's the favorite of MSM journalists? Whose coverage is up 671% from yesterday?

The 2008 Presidential Wire enables us to know, in real time. . .

You might ask, "Why so early?" Good question. Actually, it's because a tool like this is most useful early in the process, when so little is known about many of the contenders, and we can get a glimpse into the Statehouse or the Senate office without being inundated by 24/7 cable news coverage and hundreds of versions of the same wire copy.