MSB - The Rise of the Main Stream Blogger

One of the welcome trends this election cycle is that blogging has become sufficiently mainstream that the pros are leveraging the new publishing medium to its fullest. For example, compare the cogent, well written character of an excerpt from Byron York's post today to the shrill shrieking that was the norm in 2004:

McCain and Romney: The Warrior and the To-Do List
The candidates make their last pitch in New Hampshire.

By Byron York

Manchester, New Hampshire — You want to see the fundamental differences between John McCain and Mitt Romney? Look at how they chose to end their campaigns here in New Hampshire. Crafting his final argument, Romney, the technocrat, came up with an itemized to-do list for his administration. McCain, the warrior, promised never to surrender in the war on terror and to pursue America’s enemies to the gates of hell. But even as they revealed their different selves, both men seemed somewhat rattled by the last hours of the campaign — not just exhausted, not just nervous, but intensely aware that soon they could be fully back in the race for the Republican nomination, or nearly out of it.

Compared to the hacks that ruled the roost in the last election cycle (as someone famously said, the trouble with the global village is the global village idiot), it is wonderful to see that lines between traditional print and broadcast and internet publishing have been blurred.

Peter Kafka today highlighted the same when he noted the lack of reaction to Bill Gates sitting down with an Engadget blogger at CES.