Richardson and Giuliani Top PajamasMedia's Poll

It's no secret that the MSM prefers Hillary Clinton as the next U.S. President, but who is the blogosphere rooting for?

The good news is that the blogosphere does not operate as a monolith the way MSM does. That is, bloggers as a group--unlike MSM reporters--are infinitely freer to think for themselves and write what they want. Bloggers simply do not have to answer to the biases of their political sources, corporate hierarchies, owners, or even readers. Weblog readers--which are often weblog writers--also tend to be a hugely diverse and very independent-minded group.

The bottom line is that the blogosphere can not--and would not--unite behind a single candidate. But still, which candidate does the hyper diverse world of political webloggers and weblog readers believe is winning?

According to the most recent PajamasMedia's Presidential Straw Poll, a weekly online survey of blogger opinion, places Bill Richardson at the top of the Democratic field with 34.4% of the vote. Barack Obama is second with 18.2% of the vote. Hillary Clinton is far back with just 8.0% of the vote.

On the Republican side, PajamasMedia's Presidential Straw Poll places Rudy Giuliani ahead with 3o%, followed by Newt Gingrich with 20.3%. John McCain is far back with just 4.7%.

While unscientific and subject to partisan manipulation, the 'poll' serves as an interesting--if only entertaining--views of PajamasMedia poll takers. I'll make sure to check in again to see who's up and who's down in the coming weeks and months.