The people-who-can't-vote perspective? Check

Posted on: 29 August 2008 by Mike Miner

Are you like me? Have you gone coo-coo for convention coverage?

It's as much fun to watch the good folks over at MSNBC lose the plot mid-story (we might be reaching some kind of pundit critical mass - too much spin, with not enough weight in the thought and content. The centre cannot hold), as it is to watch Joe Biden hold forth for 22-minutes of speechifying that gave you an idea of what eight years of him would feel like.

I watch it thinking Beau Biden and Michelle Obama are terrific performers and wondering whether the Democrats will remember people need to like the candidate, and Americans have little appetite for being told they nincompoops who need to be told to wake up.

And I wonder what spin the Republicans are going to put on Obama's candidacy, and wonder if they'll somehow slip out from under their baggage and once again out-maneuvre the Dems.

All that aside, it's easy enough to fold up my wondering clothes and put them in a drawer. There are reams of newsprint being stamped with analysis on these topics, and if I flip through the channels fast enough, the talking heads complete one another's sentences. There is no lack of coverage.

But what if you want something a little different? Well, the fine folks at Global Voices have partnered with Reuters to create Voices Without Votes, which co-founder Ethan Zuckerman describes as"a blog aggregator that portrays the US elections through the eyes of individuals around the world."

This is more than trivia in an election that is very much about America's place in the world and the perception of it in foreign lands. And some of the commentary is coming from Canada (Darryl Wolk, an Ontarian, is getting a lot of play on the page).

For all you convention carnivores, more meat for the meat eaters.

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