The Race Tightens: Comparison of Political Blogs

The blogs I decided to compare come from The New York Times and The Washington Post, both covering the presidential race, noting those candidates who are making headway and others who are falling behind. The main focus is one both the Republican and Democrat candidates that are pulling ahead to become the most talked about “front runners.”
In The Washington Post, the blog entry is entitled, “A Matchup Starts to Take Shape.” Written by David S. Broder, a columnist for the Post, his blog focuses on the events leading up to Tuesday’s day of voting in two-dozen states and what it means for the leading candidates of each party. For the Republicans, Broder believes that McCain has gained momentum back by winning in South Carolina and Florida after having a rough start over the summer. Broder adds to this by saying that he believes that McCain should have no problem gaining the Republican nomination unless Romney makes some extraordinary comeback. And, with McCain now the front-runner for the Republicans, Broder believes that Obama will gain the advantage and win the Democratic nomination because voters believe he has a better shot at winning the election against McCain.
In The New York Times blog called “The Caucus,” the writers Kate Phillips and Ariel Alexovich take a similar approach to their blog, entitling the entry, “The Early Word: The Race Narrows.” It is similar in that these two writers also agree that both the Republican and Democratic races have slimmed down considerably to two dueling front-runners. But while Broder from the Post uses mainly his own opinion, without inserting the writing of other journalists and analysts, Phillips and Alexovich use clips from a variety of people to support their point. They quote people from The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and even The Washington Post.
For me at least, I liked Broder’s blog much more than Phillip and Alexovich’s because of the way it was written. Broder states his opinion and finishes, not feeling the need to fill the space with endless quotes that just break up the blog too much. In The New York Times, it is hard to really feel like Phillip and Alexovich wrote very much of their opinion because it was mostly all quotes from other people. Of course, some people may view this as better because they are using so many other opinions to back up their own; Broder is simply a much easier and faster read.

Links:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/the-early-word-the-race-narrows/#more-4067
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/30/AR2008013003213.html