For New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney, the current presidential campaign is not just unprecedented because of the historical implications of the election.

“This has been the most complicated race I’ve ever covered,” he said.

Nagourney joined four other journalists from top-tier national news sources at Stanford last night to discuss the 2008 presidential campaign.

Stanford’s Department of Communication sponsored “The Press and the Presidency: Covering Campaign 2008,” last night at the Kresge Auditorium. In addition to Nagourney, the event featured Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post and Walter Shapiro of Salon.com in a discussion moderated by Communication Chair James Fishkin.

Fishkin opened the two-hour plus event marking the 42nd annual Carlos Kelly McClatchy Memorial Symposium by introducing the panelists and mentioning many of the reasons why the 2008 campaign has drawn great interest.

“In this highly unprecedented environment, the media keeps score,” Fishkin said. “These are the people who have more power than they’d like to admit.”

Discussion revolved around covering presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and Democratic primary candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton.

“I think Obama has presented a particular challenge for us,” Balz said. “How do you legitimately cover a political phenomenon? How do you intelligently cover the fact that he’s a phenomenon?”

The reporters also focused on the challenges for Senator McCain in defining himself during the general election.

“He’s still making a very difficult transition from independent or maverick — I’ve stopped using the labels — to the standard-bearer for the Republican party,” Bumiller said.

In speculating about the general election, the reporters shared the issues they would follow most closely. Some weighed in upon the issue of Senator Obama’s race as an area to follow closely if he faces McCain in November.

“All the trends in a normal election year would say a Democrat will win,” Nagourney said. “But race is an unknown. I’m not sure how to measure it, and I’m not sure if the polls measure it.”

“I guess the big question for this election is: is Barack Obama JFK, who hits after the prejudices have eroded?” Shapiro said, referring to President Kennedy’s Catholic heritage. “Or is he Al Smith, who was nominated before the prejudices eroded?”

Shapiro highlighted the prominence of prediction and speculation in campaign coverage.

“We have been awash in meaningless national polls,” Shapiro said. “One of the things that has really undermined the seriousness of this very important campaign is that so much has been spent predicting things that didn’t happen.”

The reporters also noted that recent weeks have seen the race become increasingly stagnant.

“The race has been stuck in amber ever since Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.

After a question from Fishkin regarding whether the public received mostly “junk food” from the media, the reporters weighed in on the concern that campaign coverage is excessively trivial and emphasized that the focus on two Democratic candidates with similar policies has marginalized some policy discussions.

“I think people know the basic position of all these candidates,” Nagourney said.

“We’re going to have really substantive debates in the fall,” Bumiller added.

Two of the panelists, Kornblut and Bumiller, also shared their experiences reporting with a focus on specific candidates. Kornblut follows Senator Clinton for the Post, while Bumiller covers Senator McCain for the Times.

“Being assigned to one of these candidates is like getting a Ph.D. in them,” Kornblut said.

“For me, after covering the Bush White House, I found the accessibility of the candidate absolutely debilitating,” Bumiller said. “I had no time to write.”

The reporters also pointed out other storylines heading into the fall, especially if Senator Obama becomes the Democratic nominee.

“I’ll be curious [to see] where the Hillary Clinton voters go,” Kornblut said.

“And it’s going to be fun to watch them in the Senate,” she added, referring to the fact that the two eventual nominees will be sharing time on Capitol Hill despite the campaign.

Speaking about Senator McCain, Bumiller pointed to a crucial upcoming challenge, especially in an unfavorable climate for Republicans.

“The big question to look for is whether he can succeed straddling the left, right, and center,” Bumiller said. “[Within his campaign] they are hoping he will set himself apart from the congressional races.”

“I also think this year the vice president choices will really matter,” she added.

Speaking with The Daily after the event, Balz said the panel had provided a reminder of a crucial component of journalism.

“To get questions from an audience like this is a reminder of some of the responsibility you have,” Balz said. “Our goal ought to be to ask and try [to] answer the big questions of this campaign.”

“That was the subtext of most of the questions,” he added. “How can you provide us with an even better understanding of the choice we can make? How can we count on you?”