Most also allow people to post comments. The Dean camp, for example, posts dozens of discussion topics weekly, each linked to comment sections. There, anyone with a user name and an e-mail address -- even a fake one -- can post most anything, instantaneously. The campaign reserves the right to delete submissions that are "rude, derogatory, discriminatory, libelous or offensive." But for the most part, said Mathew Gross, who helps maintain Dean's site, they go up unedited.
The result is a seemingly endless stream of chatter. Gross estimated that the campaign's supporters post 2,300 remarks a day and said more than 160,000 have been collected since June, when the site was altered to accept comments. Clark's campaign says it has archived more than 30,000 comments, the second-largest number among the candidates.
"Being on the blog is like moving around at a party, from conversation to conversation," Gross said.
That was the case during the debate. While Jenny and Grandma Marcia in OK debated Dean's flag comments, others attempted to summarize the event for those unable to watch. Others had snarky comments on the competition. ("I just realized [Dennis J.] Kucinich and Clark almost have the same outfit!" wrote Noelle.) Susan wondered who on the site was a troll, someone pretending to support Dean but who just wanted to stir up trouble. And, as is the case on every campaign blog, there was cheerleading: "Dean, man you are GREAT!!!" rene' in Texas wrote.
Less passive than Web sites, less private than e-mail, blogs help build a sense of community among supporters, according to campaign aides and outside experts. They give supporters a chance to find and talk to one another. To suggest ideas for the campaign. To express and discuss their opinions. To read more about their candidates than any single newspaper would ever publish. Even, occasionally, to work as an in-house focus group, giving the campaign their opinions on projects.
"Before Web logs and before the Internet, which allows people to connect with each other, it was very difficult to have a sense of community and a sense of involvement on the presidential level -- unless you lived in Iowa or New Hampshire," Gross said. "I think what the Web log has enabled people to do is, no matter where they live, play a very active role in the Dean campaign."
Grandma Marcia -- aka Marcia Caldwell, a 63-year-old retired nurse from Tulsa -- agreed. "Tulsa's not exactly a hotbed of Democrats," said Caldwell, who says she visits the Dean blog at least once a day. "It makes me feel more a part of what's happening -- not just an observer."
Blogs also help drive supporters to other parts of the campaign site, said John Hlinko, director of Internet strategy for the Clark campaign. "The idea that people know that any time they come back there's going to be new content is great, because it's a new way to draw them back to the site," he said.
But if blogs are the latest must-have for the Internet-savvy campaign, not every candidate agrees on what the sites must have. The Dean and Clark camps have embraced a more freewheeling approach, whereas Bush's blog is more restrained.
The tone is buttoned-down. The campaign does not post supporters' comments. And the entries are more impersonal than posts on most of the Democratic sites.
"We're at a very different stage than what any of the other candidates are. They've got votes being cast in two, maybe three months, but [votes] won't be cast for president for another year," said Chuck DeFeo, Bush's e-campaign manager. "As our grass-roots organization starts to build up, we will start to build up more of a grass-roots face of our blog."
But some experts said it still is not clear whether blogs will make any difference to the race. The question is whether and to what extent the sites inspire political newcomers not just to chat but also to help the campaign in more tangible ways, such as giving money or volunteering, said Michael Cornfield, a political scientist at George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
"I can see where they might be a way to recruit people and get them fired up," he said. "Or I can see it just being an interesting thing on the landscape that doesn't amount to anything. It's too early to tell."
