Blogger on Trail Scoops MSM

Two of the biggest recent campaign scoops—Barack Obama's "bitter" bomb and Bill Clinton's "scumbag" tirade—originated not with the mainstream media but with a 61-year-old Oakland resident who blogs for the Huffington Post. The New Yorker visits with Mayhill Fowler, who ruminates about her exclusives and expresses a few regrets.

The Tennessee native has an insightful, Catholic mind for news (she's covered the Middle East as well as domestic politics) with a fillip of down-home charm. Fowler refers to Obama's "cling to guns or religion" comment as "the fateful fundraiser" and says she'll avoid the candidate and cover his Republican rival, despite a rocky start: "The McCain campaign is a little email-challenged." (More Mayhill Fowler stories.)