June 23 - Responding to the growth of blogs and online media, this year's Democratic National Convention will increase media credentials given to bloggers. More than 120 blogs have been credentialed for the general blogger pool.

In addition, 55 blogs have received highly desirable "State Blogger Corps" credentials. The State Bloggers get to sit with their state delegations on the floor of the convention with internet and workspace provided.

Francis Holland is a blogger from Afrospear, a national group of bloggers that advocates for African-Americans. When he looked at the list of State Bloggers, he saw no black blogs among them. Holland explains that the process the Democratic Convention planners used to choose the State Blogger Corps was bound to lead to this result. And he argues that the Democratic Party can scarcely afford to alienate black voters in this election year.

The determination that there would only be one blog per state, and that that blog would be the blog with the largest audience focusing on state issues, that automatically excluded Black people. No matter how many Black people applied.

The DNC should have announced.. that there would be diversity among that blog corp. At least the state that has large Black populations, where Blacks are as much as 50% of the Democrats who come out to vote in the primaries. That those states would absolutely have at least one Black blogger on the floor of the convention.

So far this election season, African-Americans have been among the strongest supporters of Barack Obama. He received more than 90 percent support among Black voters during the Democratic primary. But some think that overwhelming support from the Black community is misplaced. Participants at a recent Washington DC forum said that it's dangerous to think Obama is the answer to the problems of Black America.