Griffs Notes 5/11/07

I know we’re more than a year and half out from the next Presidential Election, but that hasn’t stopped the campaign season from kicking off in an unprecedented earliest ever in history.

FOX News Channel, FOX News Radio and FOX News.com will be airing the “First in the South” Republican Primary Debate next Tuesday, May 15th, LIVE from the Koger Center on the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. Brit Hume, Chris Wallace, Shep Smith and Wendell Goler will handle the television duties while Rich Johnson, Mike Majchrowitz and Jeffrey Birnbaum will handle the radio side. And I have been given the high honor of co-hosting a live-stream version with Greta Van Susteren on www.foxnews.com.

Our stream coverage will focus on the next generation of voters, as eight University of South Carolina Students weighing in on the candidates and issues that affect them most will join Greta and me.

Four Republicans and four Democrats represent our student panel. They are some of the most politically active and engaged young people on campus. And considering the debate is between 10 middle-aged white men, it will be very interesting to see how this younger generation views the status quo politics of today. I would argue that on many of the issues of this campaign – illegal immigration, health care and education – there has been a void of significant creative ideas offered. And these are issues for which no one stands to be more impacted than these voters.

So forgive me for this self-serving blog posting – but I think it’s going to be a very interesting exchange and would invite you to click in and check us out!

Our coverage begins at 8p ET with pre-debate discussion, followed by the actual televised debate and a 30-minute post-debate/scorecard wrap. And I will have some post-debate blogs here as well.

And by all means if you have something you’d like me to ask these students about the candidates or issues, please do not hesitate send them my way at Griffsnotes@foxnews.com.

See you there!