I was putting together a presentation today and as part of it I did a little research into politicians that podcast. What I found was semi-interesting (at least to me).

Here’s a quick list of the politicians that made the iTunes list of its 100 most popular politically-oriented podcasts:

(3) Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)
(14) General Wes Clark (D-??)
(30) Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)
(33) Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
(51) Mark Warner (D-VA)
(59) Senator John Edwards (D-NC)
(62) Congressman Harold Ford Jr (D-TN)
(82) Congressman John Dingall (D-MI)
(86) Dick DeVos (R-MI)
(87) Senator Jon Cornyn (R-TX)
(94) Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
(97) Senator Bill Frist (R-TN)

Of these twelve politicians, seven (Clark, Feingold, Gingrich, Warner, Edwards, Clinton, Frist) have been mentioned as potential 2008 Presidential candidates. In addition, two (Ford, DeVos) are running for statewide office in their home states for the first time in 2006. Presumably the other three (Obama, Dingall, Cornyn) are either just really into podcasting or gearing up for future battles.

The most recent estimates I’ve seen show that only 1% of online households regularly listen to podcasts. And a study we performed recently found that 5% of 2006 Senate candidates are maintaining podcasts on their campaign websites.

But potential 2008 Presidential candidates seem to be diving in head first. Why? I’d guess that the 2008 hopefuls are podcasting in an effort to speak to the most active members of their Party: the bloggers who are obsessed enough to listen to this stuff. This is sign number 1,129 that the fight for the hearts and minds of political bloggers in 2008 is already on.