I guess this will be the new standard in 2008: Presidential campaigns hiring their own bloggers. Mark Warner hired Jerome Armstrong; today the New York Times reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton has hired Peter Daou of Salon.com. Daou had a similar role in the Kerry campaign in 2004.

Has any prominent potential Republican candidate hired a "blog guy"?

UPDATE: A well-connected, blog-friendly conservative political consultant tells me, "No, no prominent Republican has hired a blog person."

He says the Daou hire is a smart move for the Hillary campaign. "Daou is one of the smartest guys I've met, very low key. He wrote a memo for the Kerry campaign back in March 2004 warning them about the Swift Boat vets based on chatter at FreeRepublic. It was ignored, of course."

I wonder if Republican candidates are looking at Jerome Armstrong's hire by Warner, and now Daou's hire by Hillary, and asking, "Yes, but what do they do? What does a blogger provide me that a regular political consultant/staffer doesn't?"

Besides, you know, astrological advice.

ANOTHER UPDATE: TKS reader Adam reminds me that Patrick Ruffini was a conservative blogger, to Republican National Committee, to the Bush/Cheney 04 campaign, to the RNC again. However, one might argue that Ruffini was a campaign-professional-turned-blogger, not quite the other way around.

Has any current potential Republican candidate hired a "blog guy"?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Timothy Goddard, who's heading up their blog and overall Internet campaign of GOP candidate Mike McGavick in Washington, suggests that the GOP presidential contenders may be waiting until after the 2006 elections to hire web talent.