With the dawning of another intensive week of covering a political convention, I guess we must now gear up for the occasional reference to blogging and how very important it is to the future of political journalism.

Not to be outdone by the Democrats, the Republicans, too, have officially accredited bloggers. So in fit of pre-convention cyber-wanderlust, which used to be called boredom, I checked out a few to try to figure out what makes a blog (which stands for Web log, I have learned) worthy of such lofty status.

Wizbang is one such blog. The headlines I read include "Kerry loses control," "The Book John Kerry Doesn't Want You to Read," and "RNC Babe of the Day." Congratulations, by the way, to Laurie Coleman for winning the award on Friday. But it's all very scintallating stuff that makes me continue to scratch by head and wonder what on earth is in the drinking water that makes people utter the words "blog" and "journalism" in the same sentence. Seriously, I'm asking that and have been asking that and as near as I can tell, "it's cool because _I_ can be a journalist too" is about as whacky an answer as going to the store, picking up "Mr. Microphone" ('hey good looking, we'll be back for you later') and proclaiming it's journalism because now you can be a broadcaster too.

Remember the game "Operation?" I loved that game. Did that make me a brain surgeon?

There are a few delegates in the Minnesota delegation keeping "blogs," I understand. To their credit, they're not saying it's journalism; just an opportunity to absorb a unique perspective.

Melissa Graner of Oronoco is penning a Delegate Diary on the GOP convention site. For you Wisconsinites, Maripat Krueger of Menominee is also authoring a diary. By the way, Laura McCallum has a piece almost ready profiling some of the delegates. Look for it sometime this weekend.

If you really, really love blogs and bloggers, you can find plenty of possibilities by doing a Google search for political blogs. The Star Tribune has also assembled a lengthy list of political blogs. Let me know if you find anything original, especially if it involves Flash or funny stuff.