Nov 22, 2007 - 04:03:55 CST
The 2008 presidential campaign could turn out to be the year of the blog.Campaign press secretaries are paying attention to political bloggers' postings. The national parties are expanding their credentialing processes for bloggers who want to attend.
But Minot-based conservative blogger Rob Port recently found out how much of a gray area his hobby remains.
Port, who's been behind http://www.sayanythingblog.com since 2003, said he was excited to hear that presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani would be visiting Fargo on Nov. 14. He asked a friend with the campaign if there was any chance he could get an interview. The answer was no.
"I would definitely have taken a day off to go down there," said Port, who manages a retail store as his primary job.
Giuliani appeared in Fargo for a $250-a-plate fundraiser. Mainstream media members attending the event were initially told that the candidate would not be taking any questions
Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for the Giuliani campaign, said Port would have been welcome along with the rest of the press corps if he had chosen to attend. Agen himself has appeared on a webcast show on Port's site.
Port, who calls blogging "a rough draft," said it was a lesson on how undeveloped the official rules are for his hobby. And yes, he's going to keep requesting interviews whenever possible.
Dakotavania?
For a short time Tuesday, visitors to the Obama for America Web site got to see a geographic novelty: the city of Fargo in the state of Pennsylvania.
No, North Dakota's largest city has not defected to the Keystone state.
Rather, a graphic prepared by the Obama campaign to announce its opening of a Fargo office showed a map of the state of Pennsylvania under the words. "FARGO, ND: Office Grand Opening." A circular insignia representing Fargo appeared at the lower right hand part of the state (for those of you from back East, it was a straight shot north from Philadelphia along the New Jersey border).
Sure, Pennsylvania and North Dakota are both rectangular. It's an easier mistake to make than showing West Virginia as North Dakota - especially for somebody who's never been here.
But Ben Labolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said it wasn't a geography mistake or lack of knowledge about North Dakota.
"This was simply a matter of one of the folks in our tech shop clicking the wrong button," he said. "We're going to refresh their coffee cups and make sure they're awake as we get closer to the end of the primary campaign."
The error was soon remedied, and the correct image can be seen at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/fargoopening.
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(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@;bismarcktribune.com.)
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