Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Blogging candidate David Hoggard assesses his weblog after surviving yesterday's primary election: "(T)he blog is not the silver bullet. At the local level it is not even bronze because of the "digital divide." It is impossible to reach a sizable portion of the electorate through this medium so one must depend on tried and true pressing of flesh. The blog is important, however. It is here that I speak daily to those who are interested or find me by accident and here that I refine my voice for reaching the un-blogged in more traditional settings. I find my blog to be a valuable weapon in my arsenal, mainly to be weilded on the electronically connected faithful, who in turn are bringing more folks to within firing range." 3:06:43 PM    comment []

Mr. Sun has some good advice for David Hoggard as he prepares for the general election. My only addition would be, use your weblog to do all this stuff. Not instead of other means, but as a way to both drive and support those efforts. Work the email. Remember the lesson of the Dean blogger: the commenters are bloggers, too. Hoggard: "9:48 a.m.  - Burckley is on my front porch wanting to talk, developing..... 10:03 a.m. - Burckley is off my front porch - he ain't gonna quit, nor am I.  His yard sign that he brought over last night is not in my yard." 10:57:16 AM    comment []

Wesley Clark's campaign is in disarray. Doc called it a while ago. Edwards seems to have some of the same problems,  if not with turnover then in focus. 9:03:39 AM    comment []

Play ball! Greensboro said yes to a downtown ballpark, with the no-stadium ordinance trounced at the polls. Blogging candidate David Hoggard made the cut for the general election, but at this point he looks like a longshot. Blogging pretend-candidate Tara Grubb got less than 10% of the vote for mayor. Question: Was John Hammer's power-broker status in local politics just another dotcom-era bubble? 8:55:10 AM    comment []

Derek Willis looks beyond the campaign blog to the governing blog, and doesn't see much there. "A president or member of Congress has any number of reasons to favor control over candor, and being hailed as a political blogging pioneer isn't the sort of inducement that will change their minds." Counterpoint: The Dean campaign's Matthew Gross told BloggerCon that the Dean blog would become a White House blog, and emphasized that the candidate (or office-holder) is unlikely to be the primary blogger -- and that the comments are as important as anything else on the screen. Also, governing blogs, like campaign blogs, may be most interesting at lower levels of politics. A staff-written blog by a congressman or state rep would be a great way to communicate with the folks at home. 8:25:58 AM    comment []