We do a lot of work here for clients involved in the political and legislative processes. And I'm not sharing any secrets to say that I'm a political junkie myself. I've actually tried to stay out of the presidential race until now -- starting so early seemed silly to me. I'd love to see a much-compressed primary calendar.

But now that 2008 is here, I'm going to dive right in. The great thing is, I'll find practically everything I want to know online. [While I do read political blogs, I'm only including one here. I think many serve more as a rallying point for the faithful -- no quarrel from me -- instead of true information sources.]

Here are a few of my favorite political sites and sources:

The New York Times: With each election cycle, the NYT continues to improve its online offerings, often with Tufte-esque graphics that tell the story as well or better than the accompanying erudite analysis. Khoi Vinh and his design team rock.

The Green Papers: I've been a reader of this fabulous site since not long after its inception in 1999. It's green. It's ugly. And it has more information about elections than you can find in any other one place.

Patrick Ruffini: Excellent commentary from a guy with significant GOP party and national campaign experience, especially on how the media, Internet and other digital technologies affect races. [Disclaimer: He's friends with my boss and I've met him several times. But don't let that dissuade you: Patrick knows whereof he speaks.]

Politico: It's just been around a year, but this site quickly became a must-read for people who need the latest news from the campaign trail. Or who like to read fun campaign gossip.

NFIB.com: Don't forget to check out NFIB, our client. They're already hard at work to fight for small business in the 2008 elections.

John and I were just discussing the Clinton-Obama finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, and how wrong the polls were about last night's primary results. Why were the polls and predictions wrong? What are polls worth if they miss the answer by that much? [Sadly, we didn't come up with definitive answers. Both of us are just amateur, if earnest, prognosticators.]

But the discussion got me thinking about focus groups and user testing vs. measuring actions. In the custom media business, we spend a great deal of time trying to figure out what readers need. Common sense says, just ask people what they want, and they'll tell you. In real life, it's rarely so simple.

Focus groups can help you get an idea of where your customers are. Or they could be derailed by a couple of folks with strong opinions. User testing -- which I'm a big believer in -- can give you a false picture of how people use your website. Or it might explain exactly why so many shopping carts are abandoned just before confirmation.

In the end, the only thing we can count on is what our customers actually do. Never mind what they tell us they want [more articles about the tax code! more lengthy educational pieces!] -- we must respond to what they actually read [more articles about Britney and Jamie Spears!].

Figuring out the most effective ways to measure and respond to customer actions, online and off, is our challenge.