Thompson agreed that too much of the media focused on horse race coverage and didn't aggressively look at the issues that matter most to the public.

"It's a lot easier for the media to cover the process, and a lot easier to cover the horse race," he said. "Of course, it's a lot better to watch the horse race coverage when you're the lead horse... but even so, you'd like more coverage of substance a lot of the time."

But even with the shortcomings of the mainstream political coverage, Thompson and Edwards both noted that the Web provided interested citizens with an alternative way to read the news and learn about the issues on the campaign trail. For as much as political consultants may wince at the uncontrolled and unpredictable nature of blogs and viral Web videos, Edwards and Thompson said that online political discussion is a healthy sign of engaged voters.

"There are enormous numbers of people who are going to YouTube to watch the speeches of presidential candidates," said Edwards. "The difference between the 1990s and today is like night and day. Back then, presidential candidates were literally unreachable."