Extreme Mortman is interviewing top bloggers who will be covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Here is Laurin Manning from the South Carolina-based blog The LaurinLine.

Mortman: Tell me what the LaurinLine is.
Manning: I launched the LaurinLine in 2002 as a personal website. Although my interest in politics crept into entries periodically, LaurinLine: The Early Years focused just as much on what I happened to eat for lunch on a given day as it did on my political opinions. Over time, gauging from the number and nature of comments on the political pieces as well as which search words brought the most referrals from Google, I realized that most of my readership craved political coverage. I tailored my content accordingly. (Though I do still slip in the occasional I-ate-shrimp-and-grits-today post.)

Mortman: What is your role?
Manning: I pay for the site, design its graphics, write its content, and stomach the criticism garnered by it.

Mortman: How will blogs and online communities affect and change the South Carolina presidential primary in 2008?
Manning: South Carolina is a small state, and the boundaries of the various political factions are clearly drawn — most noticeably among Republicans. Scar tissue from the 2000 Presidential primary in our state hasn’t healed. Eight years later, there remains little association between the Bushbackers and the McCainiacs. Republican bloggers tend to fall neatly into one camp or the other, and their content reflects these allegiances. I expect to see the former Bushbackers rallying behind a more Bush-esque social conservative candidate–a George Allen, a Bill Frist, a Mike Huckabee.
Both the South Carolina Republican Party and the South Carolina Democratic Party have close ties with certain bloggers who are willing to shill for them (or at least promote their stories), and I expect to see more party agenda-pushing in the blogosphere as the primaries approach.

Mortman: Compare the impact blogs and online communities will have in 2008 primary campaigning and voting to that of the mainstream media?
Manning: Blog readers tend to be uber-informed, so I doubt blog-reading will change the minds of many readers. For the readers who are more impressionable, though, the dialogue-engaging nature of the blog medium is perfect for “hearing” multiple sides of a given issue.
The mainstream media is beginning to understand the power of the interactivity of blogging and is applying these ideas to better their own media. South Carolina’s largest newspaper, The State, features several blogs on its website, including one manned by the editorial page editor, Brad Warthen. Also, The State has recently added commenting capability on certain news stories featured on their website.

Mortman: Will blogs follow the mainstream media or will the mainstream media follow the blogs?
Manning: It’s cyclical. The mainstream media provides bloggers with material, and the mainstream media follows blogs to gauge the interest level of stories and plan for future news coverage.

Mortman: What role will young voters play in the 2008 primary?
Manning: Campaigns will utilize and improve upon the “netroots” campaigning tactics most famously employed by Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004. The synthesis of technology and the political process tends to attract and energize young voters.
Also, there is no incumbent President or sitting Vice President running for the first time in over 50 years. This element of surprise and the guarantee of change is likely to attract the attention of young people and others who otherwise may tend to show little interest in elections.

Mortman: Which potential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, have been organizing online campaigns?
Manning: Virtually all of them.
The Democratic Presidential hopefuls are ahead of the curve with respect to online campaign organizing for 2008. John Edwards’ One America Committee is the most thorough, interactive, and visually appealing site of all. Tom Vilsack’s HeartlandPAC.org, Mark Warner’s ForwardTogetherPAC.com, and Joe Biden’s UniteOurStates.com are also comprehensive, well-designed sites. The most bare-bones, visually-blah site among Democratic hopefuls is Hillary Clinton’s HILLPAC.com.
Bill Frist’s VOLPAC.com is the best of the GOP Presidential hopefuls’ sites. VOLPAC.com is a well-organized, user-friendly site with a host of capabilities–downloading podcasts, tracking Senate races, and tapping into a broad network of blogs. John McCain’s StraightTalkAmerica.com is nice-looking and easy to navigate. Second-string sites include George Allen’s www.GeorgeAllen.com and Mike Huckabee’s HealthyAmerica.org.

Mortman: As we approach the South Carolina presidential primary, which candidates, both Dem and Republican, will have more appeal to blogs and online communities– and why? And which will have the least — and why?
Manning: Internet campaign activity in the 2004 election forever changed the face of political campaigning. Netroots activism is especially useful to insurgent candidates, but internet media will be utilized by all candidates, Democrat or Republican, serious or not. I expect to see all candidates competing to maximize the endless possibilities of internet media.

Mortman: Who will win the 2008 South Carolina presidential primary — both Dem and Republican?
Manning: An anti-Hillary Democrat will probably win the Democratic primary in South Carolina. South Carolina Democrats love Native Son John Edwards. He won the primary here in 2004, and he still has a strong support network in South Carolina. A Southern Democrat like Mark Warner could also do very well here, though I suspect that those to whom he will appeal most have already been (and may remain) Edwards’ supporters. Democrats here aren’t going to be too picky, though, since victory is seldom celebrated by Democrats in South Carolina. There will be earnest support among Democrat activists here for whomever has a fighting chance of actually winning.

Mortman: How will The LaurinLine cover the primary?
Manning: I am strongly considering attempting to leapfrog from blogger to campaign staffer after I finish law school in 2007, and if that happens, I may take a leave-of-absense from The LaurinLine and try and wrangle some of my fellow Palmetto political junkies into guest blogging while I’m away. If no full-time campaign opportunities pan out, I’ll plan to follow the primary as aggressively as I can, depending upon the time and energy constraints of securing post-law school employment and attempting to pass the bar exam!