News-Record.com

While it has been exciting to live through the past two weeks as the two Democratic presidential candidates have discovered that there are voters in North Carolina, I must admit that a small but rapidly growing part of me is so done with the candidates and their families visiting the state.

A day hasn't gone by in the past two weeks in which an Obama or a Clinton haven't been in the state. (With the Clintons triple-teaming us, I can well imagine how Tyler Hansbrough feels in the paint.) We have Bill in Reidsville last night and Hill in High Point today. We even have John McCain in Winston on Election Day, for goodness sakes. (I'm sure he's getting good advice about where to campaign, but I hope he isn't expecting his visit to get much play in the Wednesday papers.)

I know from the crowds they draw that people love the face time with the candidate. It is an exciting time to be a voter whose vote in the presidential primary matters....at least if you are a Democrat. But for a newspaper, how many times can we write a story about Bill visiting Greensboro or Elon or Kernersville or Reidsville? (He says he has the rural tour.) Chelsea is good for one story, but she doesn't say much that's newsworthy. She scarcely spoke to the media during her visit to the Children's Museum. Even though Hillary was at Guilford College Friday afternoon, we put most of our efforts into her appearance in Raleigh later that night. We wrote: Earlier Friday, Clinton gave a speech at Guilford College in Greensboro. Her talk touched on many of her regular themes, including making college affordable, improving health care and pulling soldiers from Iraq.

Given that their stump speeches are much the same, what do we have to report? And the coverage gets the candidates' faithful all riled up. (Actually, that happens regardless of where the candidates are.) We didn't cover the former president in our area last night, but we will be the candidate today. And we don't know yet whether either will be in the state to celebrate a victory tomorrow night.

Personally, I'm trying to keep my eye on the prize -- the potential for more people than ever participating in the democratic process by voting.

Lenslinger has more. What all this simulated momentum has to do with governing our great land I ain't so sure, but if I wanted to manufacturethis kind of clamor I'd go back to pimpin' American Idol. They got w-a-y cuter interns.