Back-To-Back Conventions Have Crews Wired

As exhausted Democrats rest up from last week's festivities and Republicans prepare to throw their quadrennial grand old party, weary media are wrestling with the hassles, expense, and physical challenges of relocating operations from Denver to the Twin Cities with no break between the two parties' conventions.

Many information-technology staffers are on week two of a three-week convention road trip because they had to be in Denver long before the reporters, editors, and photographers to install the computer networks, fiber-optic cables, phone lines, and other technology the media depend on to do their job.

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Bloggers Plan To Blanket GOP Convention

Move over, Bill Kristol. The 2008 Republican National Convention will be a showcase for a new crop of young political analysts who made their reputations not on ink and paper but in the blogosphere. GOP insiders will be toggling for their news and gossip on the Internet, checking in frequently with blogs like Erick Erickson's RedState and Ed Morrissey's Hot Air.

This year, the two major political parties issued credentials for far more political bloggers not affiliated with traditional media outlets than they did in 2004. Four years ago, Republicans credentialed about a dozen bloggers, and Democrats registered a little over 30. In 2008, Republicans expect to host as many as 200 bloggers in Minneapolis-St. Paul; the Democrats credentialed 120 bloggers at their convention in Denver last week. The GOP is treating bloggers the same as traditional journalists, even providing them with a large office space equipped with Internet and telephone access.

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