Key Clicks for Campaign Watchers
Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts," said the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Facts are what separate good political reporting and analysis from hot air, and in 2004 more information is available to more people than ever before.
The blossoming of the Internet is the biggest technical development in American politics; it has revolutionized campaigning, fundraising and communications. Zephyr Teachout, Howard Dean's director of Internet organizing, told the L.A. Times, "It's like having an office anybody can walk into and instantly become part of the staff. We're basically using the Internet to allow us to have a 50,000-person staff."
And it has changed political reporting, too. Walter Shapiro, in his book "One Car Caravan," about the Invisible Primary phase of the '04 campaign, says information travels so fast that often you can learn more about what's happening in a room by sitting at a computer 200 miles away than trudging around the hall. Of course, nothing really beats braving the big Iowa snowstorms or spending New Year's Eve watching Wesley Clark in a conga line, but in order to follow all nine Democratic candidates, the Bush-Cheney operation and mega-interest groups, the Web has become the way to really be on top of what's happening.
Here are the Web sites we think are particularly useful:
1. Of course, we here at CBSNews.com are especially pleased with our Politics page. All the networks have started daily tip sheets and our Washington Wrap has been particularly successful. In addition, our reporters traveling with the campaigns have been filing good solid stories and we'll be starting a Weblog this week with their daily notes. The Campaign '04 briefing book, which used to be proprietary to CBS News reporters and producers is now on the Web for all to read. And our U.S. and Opinion pages are filled with information and commentary on political topics.
2. National Journal's Hotline continues to be the crème de la crème of tip sheets, serving up about 20,000 words each day on the candidates, the states and the stories that comprise Campaign '04. This is a subscription publication, although NationalJournal.com has some good information available for free. And there's another handful of hot sites that most political reporters check daily which you might want to tap into as the campaign heats up.
3. My personal favorite for national political news is Taegan Goddard's Political Wire (politicalwire.com). Goddard, a Harvard grad, has fabulous political news judgment and the site is clean and its links easily accessible. It is updated throughout the day and often on weekends. The Political Wire follows news in the traditional media but also highlights reports from political Web sites and blogs, which offer another dimension to campaign reporting. South Carolina native Phil Noble's PoliticsOnline.com is also very strong on Internet campaign coverage.
4. For local coverage, both Iowa and New Hampshire have good sites. IowaPolitics.com has just gone up but looks very promising. It features the top Iowa stories of the day and links to local TV and print sites. PoliticsNH.com has been running all year; most recently it made big news by sponsoring the "find a first lady for Kucinich contest." But mainly it keeps track of candidate and campaign activities in New Hampshire and the role of the local politicians in the Granite State.
5. Center for Responsive Politics' Opensecrets.org does the most reliable analysis and monitoring of campaign finance issues. The government's site, FEC.gov, has become much more user-friendly in the past few years and is worth checking out, as is PublicIntegrity.org.
6. The Annenberg School has enlisted former Wall Street Journal and CNN reporter Brooks Jackson to continue his superb monitoring of the "factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases" on FactCheck.org. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters to try to "reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics" – a big mission and a well-done product.
7. Project Vote Smart (vote-smart.org) pioneered in compiling the public statements of presidential candidates and again has a comprehensive list and a helpful search engine to find the complete issue papers and statements.
8. George Washington University, gwu.edu/~action/P2004.html, has a particularly lively site. It has been in monitoring the staffs of all the candidates. Should you need to find out where John Edwards campaign manager Nick Baldick went to law school (NYU) or who else Wesley Clark's political director Laura Berghold advises (Norman Lear), it's all there.
Click away!