Female viewers of barackobama.com, meanwhile, dipped slightly during that span, to 63 percent last month from 67 percent in June, although his Web site still had nearly twice as many female viewers as McCain's, 519,000 to 276,000.
Stories involving Palin that haven't broken through to the mainstream debate have been fodder for vigorous argument online. Before the brinksmanship over the financial bailout and presidential debate last week, there was great online interest and comment about a report that while Palin was mayor of Wasilla, it was the only town in Alaska that billed sexual-assault victims or their insurers for the cost of the "rape kits" used to examine their injuries. Palin detractors termed it an outrage. Her supporters said the media was just digging dirt. Palin didn't issue any statement on the matter.
The tools of modern communications can cut both ways: When someone clumsily tried to hack into Palin's Yahoo e-mail account, someone sent the conservative Maryland blogger Michelle Malkin a tip that led to the son of a Tennessee Democratic legislator as a suspect.
In a talk to public policy graduate students at Johns Hopkins University last week, Charles Mahtesian, national politics editor for Politico.com, contended that blogs had a sizable impact on the Sarah Palin story even before her nomination at the Republican National Convention.
Alaska bloggers speculated that the Palins' unmarried 17-year-old daughter, and not the governor, was the mother of the infant Trig (partly based on Palin not "looking" pregnant). That likely played a role in forcing the family and McCain campaign to announce Bristol's pregnancy earlier than it probably would have liked, just as the Republican convention was getting under way, he said.
Mahtesian said the Trig rumor could have easily been shot down by Alaska politicians who said later they had seen Sarah Palin excuse herself from meetings due to her pregnancy or later to nurse Trig, but the blogosphere often shoots first and asks questions later.
Mahtesian said Politico, among the best-known political Web sites after only 19 months, strongly considers tabloid-print reporters for its pool of potential hires, sensing that they are more used to the frenetic pace, and tone, of new media.
