WH '08 WATCH -- TV Tracker

September marked the first month The Hotline began timing both Sarah Palin and Joe Biden as official VP candidates. Our count of September TV face time on newsmaker cable and broadcast shows for declared WH '08ers shows that although Palin only participated in three interviews, she managed to log considerably more time than Biden. This is due to the media's rather new approach to taking full advantage of "exclusives." ABC, CBS and FNC parceled out their interview material with Palin over numerous nights.

Meanwhile, John McCain and Barack Obama both added a fair amount of talk time to their overall totals (both candidates spent much more time on broadcast). But as we near 11/4, it will be interesting to see whether the candidates continue to log a healthy amount of face time, or whether their surrogates will be substituting for them.

Totals after the jump. One practical note about TV Tracker -- We began our monthly log the Tuesday after Labor Day 2005 (9/6/05).

(KATHERINE LEHR)

MONTHLY TOTAL

                   Sep. '08

Candidate       Broad     Cable

McCain         3:06:50     38:35

Obama          2:25:11   1:09:54 

Barr             n/a       12:56

Nader             4:59     43:15

Biden          1:12:32     46:19

Palin          2:07:34   1:01:57

OVERALL TOTAL

             Total     Total      Overall

Candidate    Broad     Cable       Total

McCain     28:47:03   27:01:05   55:48:08

Obama      23:07:26   15:01:40   38:09:06

Nader         33:58    1:52:48    2:26:46

Barr          28:36      13:01      41:37

Biden       1:24:01      46:19    2:10:20

Palin       2:07:34    1:01:57    3:09:31