Opinion: MyState of the Union

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The Times’ own Jonah Goldberg is one of four judges in a contest that’s part social-networking, part American Idol, and part political training ground. MySpace seeks minute-long ‘MyState of the Union’ speeches and promises the winner -- decided by the judges and by popular vote -- a trip to Capital Hill.

It’s no recording contract, but winning the prize may inspire some would-be politicos to do for MySpace what Howard Dean did for the Internets -- make it a necessary platform for political campaigns. If that sounds too far-fetched, the contest will certainly start the trend of overusing ‘My-’ as a prefix. (It might even rival ‘i-’, which has gone from iMac and iPod to iPad.)