Are those politicians who would be too worried about this be the ones we actually want to have in charge of things, Ed? Would you actually bother to read their blog? And would you really want to keep them in office?

Ed Cone: "Somebody could end a political career pretty damn fast by letting out some 2 AM brainfart onto the Web." I don't agree with this prediction. My guess is that when politics and governance move to this medium, it will be a lot more resilient than TV.

Ed's point is correct, unfortunately, certainly for the near term -- at least until the US voters realize there can be a distinction drawn between the job a person is chosen to perform, the actual job performance, and the person. So much of Europe is very far ahead of us on that count. As long as my elected officials are actually doing their job well, I really don't about who they may be schtupping, or what they prefer to wear in the bedroom, or whether they collect Hummel figures. That's an issue for their spouse or partner, not of mine. And certainly not worth spending millions of our tax dollars on invesitgating, unless it does impact their job performance -- the behavior, that is, not the investigation.

I'd also have to think that many people who actually vote (the living ones, at least) do want to hear exactly what their elected officials might be thinking about as they wrestle with the issues. I suspect that more exposure to the actual thoughts of our politicians might begin to bring some serious changes. Perhaps it could eventually lead to a shift away from soundbites and posing-for-media-play stances on an issue, and back toward genuine discussion about the issues themselves.

Another possible benefit might be a change in those who seek to become politicians, from those who only seek power and once elected are concerned only about preserving their job while lining their pockets, to politicians being more like the ones you may have been taught about in our middle-school civics classes. You know, the ones who actually serve their own electorate. Who might actually dare to listen and act on the concerns of the people in their city/county/parrish/district/state, and not the special interests of a select group based on the other side of the country. Or looking even further ahead, to where the voters would eliminate major portions of this republic, and move toward an actual digital democracy.

And maybe hogs will sprout wings from eating all that Franken-corn, and become a viable transport system for next-day package delivery. Pbbbbbttt.

12:21:40 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [ blinked via Scripting News ]