Heather Kovar's Blog: Speaking of Firsts

Back in July of 1999, I was working for a station in upstate New York and was part of the press pool following Hillary Clinton on her "Listening Tour"of the area. We followed her as she made appearances in places like Oneonta, Binghamton, Utica, Cooperstown and Albany as she explored the idea of running for the U.S. Senate.

It worked. She was elected Senator in November of 2000 while her husband was still president. She became the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.

Now she says she's in the running to become the first former First Lady President, as well as first woman president. She made the announcement via a video message on her website. She says she wanted to reach the most people at the same time.

She made this unplanned stop at a rest area because she had to go. Here she smiled and shook hands. I don't remember her saying too much on this tour, hence the title "listening."

A day after Clinton's announcement, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson posted his intentions to run for president on his website. But also in Spanish. Though he would be the first Latino president, he says he isn't running as a minory but rather as an American.

This past Tuesday, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, of Illinois, announced he was filing papers to create a presidental exploratory committee on BarackObama.com.

This is a monumental time in politics and the internet as we watch what would be the nation's first woman president, first hispanic president and first black president compete for the democratic nomination.

Also in the Democratic field, we have Senator Chris Dodd seeking the presidential nod. However, a U.S. Senator from Connecticut looking to run for president is NOT a first. That came in January 2003 when Joe Lieberman announced his intentions to seek a Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. In the 2000 presidential election, as a candidate for vice-president, Lieberman became the first Jewish candidate on a major American political party ticket.

While Mr. Dodd officially announced his intentions on Imus' program on radio and MSNBC, and not his website, his page www.ChrisDodd.com is quite hip. He has links to his flickr, MySpace, YouTube and Facebook accounts. But he even has what he calls, "DoddPod." He writes he loves using his IPod, so he's created his own playlist of a song or message a day.

Dodd also urges you to upload a video of yourself discussing the issues you'd like to see addressed in this election. The site says from time to time Dodd will respond directly to your submissions.

Hillary Clinton is using her site as well to host online video converstations. She's going live tonight through Wednesday. She says she will answer your questions streamed over the net beginning at 7 p.m. EST each night.

Others in the crowded Democratic field include Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

On the Republican side, a busy crowd is expected as well. Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, announced his candidacy for president on Saturday. Among those with exploratory committees include Senator John McCain of Arizona and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.

If for some reason Democrats put up Hillary and Republicans nominate Giuliani, it wouldn't be the first time for the two to compete. Giuliani stepped out of the 2000 New York Senate race for health reasons.<script type='text/javascript' src='http://track.mybloglog.com/js/jsserv.php?mblID=2006062209194993'></script>

Comments

I'm certain that you will have a facinating presidential election. I'll be watching it as closely as I can and thanks to blogging, I think we'll get better insights into the campaigns an about the candidtaes. Along with the excellent news coverage too!

Have the dirty tricks campaigns started already? Here I refer to the ,"Would you vote for a smoker as president" poster referring to Mr Obama?

Posted by: Robert Bruce | January 27, 2007 at 10:53 PM