REPORTING FROM TOLEDO, OHIO -- Here in the battleground of all battleground states, the people in charge of this soon-to-end presidential campaign are Chris Myers and Katie Stoynoff.
But Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have never heard of them.
Myers, 33, is a lifelong Republican. Though he's always been wary of McCain's "Straight Talk Express," he got onboard the moment it made room for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "McCain could not have made a better pick," says Myers, who lives in Toledo. On his community blog, Swamp Bubbles, where Palin is often maligned, Myers is her biggest defender.
Stoynoff, 32, meanwhile, is a die-hard Democrat. "Must have been born that way," she jokes. Raised in the small town of Green, just outside Akron, she signed up with Obama's campaign on Feb. 10, 2007, the day he announced his candidacy. That afternoon, Stoynoff logged on to Obama's social networking site and formed an online group, Akron for Obama.
Though they share almost nothing in common politically, Myers and Stoynoff are part of a growing set of Americans, "a participatory class," as Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet & American Life Project calls it.
