Has hiring bloggers become de rigueur?

I have been predicting for a while now that by '08, every serious presidential contender will employ a blogger. Today's National Journal includes a good column by K. Daniel Glover called: Paid Bloggers Proliferate On Campaign Payrolls (you may need a subscription to read it in its entirety). Here's an excerpt:

"With increasing frequency, candidates across the country are paying bloggers to write, develop Web sites, connect with energetic allies on the Internet, respond to online critics, and advise their employers about how to behave in the blogosphere. Others are paid to do more traditional campaign work like communications consulting and opposition research."