Extreme Mortman is interviewing top bloggers who will be covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Here is David Burris from the Delaware-based blog First State Politics.

Mortman:  Tell me what First State Politics is.
Burris: First State Politics is a blog I created this year to try and provide focused information about Delaware and national politics from the perspective of one Delaware Republican. There hasn’t really been a blog like this focused solely on Delaware, so I’m hoping to fill the void for political junkies and observers alike here in the first state. Certainly 2008 was in my mind when I started it.

Mortman: What is your role?
Burris: I don’t know that my role is for me to define. I try to present information, stir up discussion and see what comes of it. I stay in communication with various political activists around the state and try to get a bead on what the politics of the day are.

Mortman: How will blogs and online communities affect and change the presidential primary campaign in 2008?
Burris: This will certainly be an interesting election for that reason. After 2004, with the advent of the ‘netroots’ and the Howard Dean campaign’s success with online fundraising, everyone’s scrambling to ensure that they can mobilize the online support. One example of this is Mark Warner’s hiring of MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong, which has kind of blurred the lines between paid advocacy and grassroots support.
What the candidates fail to realize, though, is that the Deaniac craze was viral. You can’t manufacture that kind of reaction. You’re seeing it now with Mitt Romney. There is an online movement to support Romney, from the ‘Americans for Mitt’ sites to the ‘Elect Romney in 2008′ blog to the ‘Evangelicals for Mitt.’ This is not a coordinated effort. I know because I’m a part of it, as a guest blogger on the Elect Romney site. There are people out there just like me who are fired up about Mitt Romney and are banding together to promote his candidacy without any direction, coordination or even contact from the candidate or his people. It just takes on a life of its own.

Mortman: Compare the impact blogs and online communities will have in 2008 primary campaigning and voting to that of the mainstream media?
Burris: I think that blogs and online communities where people can comment and debate, communities like DailyKos, Atrios, Free Republic and RedState, can have a big effect on momentum and opinion among activists. Supporters of a candidate can ensure that his or her message gets to the faithful and gets field-tested early among those who know the issues. It is certainly easier for a longshot candidate like a Howard Dean to emerge via online support than it was in the days before the internet.
The possibility of direct communication between candidate and voter, and the limited expense of doing so, makes the internet extremely attractive. Other technologies like text messaging are already being used to make that one-on-one connection that you don’t get when you have to go through the MSM filter, and at a relatively limited expense.
The mainstream media, on the other hand, will feed you what they think you want to see and hear. They have the resources and the agents in place to break big stories and get face time with candidates, but there’s no vetting of their material. It is up to the blogs to decide what the MSM did wrong or right. Of course, the good old television advertisement still seems to pack the biggest punch, but now you can not only see the ad on your local news, you can see it anytime you like on the web.
 
Mortman: Will blogs follow the mainstream media or will the mainstream media follow the blogs?
Burris: I think you will certainly see some of each. Stories will emerge from the blogs that make it to the MSM, and stories from the MSM will absolutely be dissected on the blogs daily.

Mortman: What role will young voters play in the 2008 primary?
Burris: This question always fascinates me. Young voters are a mystery. In fact, it’s tough for me to even discuss “young people” at the ripe old age of 31.  I keep feeling like the 18-24 crowd is finally going to come out in droves, but it never seems to materialize. So, it will probably be another election where people talk about the young vote, and recruit the young vote, but it fails to materialize.

Mortman: Which potential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, have been organizing online campaigns?
Burris: Well, besides Romney and Warner, which I mentioned above, Bill Frist has used the web as a communication tool this year, there is an effort to draft Condoleeezza Rice and Wes Clark continues his net presence from 2004.

Mortman: Tell me about your homestate Delaware candidate, Democratic Senator Joe Biden. Will he have appeal to blogs and online communities — and why?
Burris: It will be interesting to see how the blogs relate to Senator Biden. Since the lefty netroots seem to want to run Senator Lieberman off for being a hawk, I can’t see them jumping behind Biden, who has a hawkish streak as well. The online communities on the left seem to like ideological purity in their candidates, so I think the leftroots will eventually look hard at Sen. Feingold.

Mortman: Is BIden organized online?
Burris: Biden’s PAC, Unite Our States, has a site, uniteourstates.com, complete with a blog. Also, there is JoeBiden.com, paid for by ‘Citizens for Biden’ which I believe is his Senate campaign organization. Also, there is joebidenforpresident.org, which is very limited in scope. So I’d say he’s out there, but without much fanfare.

Mortman: How will First State Politics cover the 2008 presidential campaign, particularly the primary?
Burris: This being a small state, where just about everyone in politics knows everyone else, I’ll try to get a feel for what people are looking for in a candidate, and what they’re seeing. This is in addition to covering campaigns, visits and donations.
Right now, I’d say that Delaware would certainly be loyal to Joe Biden and give him the win on the Democratic side. As a result, I don’t see many Democrats campaigning here so long as Joe is in the race.
As far as the Republicans go, this is certainly a state that can be won by visiting here. Steve Forbes won in 1996 based on his multiple visits to the state. Bush visited in 2000, and won, bouncing back quickly from a loss in New Hampshire by doubling up on McCain here in Delaware, which arguably re-established Bush as the frontrunner and made New Hampshire appear to be the exception.
John McCain has been here a few times since 2000, most recently this summer, and has a strong ally in Rep. Mike Castle. McCain has also donated to the state Republican Party. George Pataki gave the keynote address at the state GOP convention this year and is due back this month for a fundraiser for the state party’s campaign fund. George Allen made an appearance last year and has raised money from Delawareans for his re-election bid. Of course, it’s only 2006, so there’s a long way to go. It will certainly be fun to watch.