Lets make history...

For some, the political process is a drag and for others it ignites passion. When presented with the chance to assist CNN with dial testing, it didn't take any convincing for me to fly to LA to lend a helping hand. Our charge from the network was to conduct focus groups of registered voters in California during both parties debates. Thousands of potential participants from the registered voters list were called and randomly assigned. The participants arrived at a CNN substation in

Oxnard --approximately 90 miles from LA-- an hour before the debate was set to air. The participants went thought a litny of questions providing the researcher with a raw base of data about the group. The pre-questions allowed for the researcher to categorize the participants responses by age, gender or ethnic background. This focus group, unlike the thousands of others being conducted simultaneously across the country, used dial testing or real time response dials.

Each member of the randomly selected group watched the debate on three large-screen TVs while operating a special hand-held dial-testing device, approximately the size of typical remote-control devices. This allowed the researcher to chart undecided voters opinions every second of the debate. The 24 or so participants' emotions were displayed through an EKG like line which represented the average of the group. The redline was laid over the televised debate and rebroadcasted with a 20 second delay on CNN.com. Fruits of our labor

I watched diligently as the redline shimmied up and down as the Presidential hopefuls sparred back and forth. It was also my job to watch the blogs. I will admit, I was initially unimpressed with the whole notion of blogging. It appears to makes unimportant people feel important and teeters a bit on the edge of voyeur. Yet, with each page I reviewed my intrigue grew. People started commenting about the focus group.MSNBC's First Read

As I sat watching the debate, I realized I was watching history. The Democratic nominee will either be a woman or an African-American, and maybe this contemporary mode of information exchange - blogging - is another representation of changing times.