Saturday, January 24, 2004

Dan Herzlich, commenting at Buzzmachine, takes the popped-bubble meme to the next level: "Bottom line: blogs have done more damage to the Democratic party than most are willing to admit." I don't buy it. Maybe if Dean runs a long, futile, draining campaign, or runs as a third-party candidate, you could say that -- but that would be less about blogs (or more properly, the broad range of Internet tools used in online campaigning, of which blogs are just one) than it would about Dean. Thanks in large part to Dean, every major Democratic candidate is serious about using the Net, and each will continue to develop his online abilities. Clark has been strong online since he started, Kerry and Edwards are in the game. Cheap, fast, ubiquitous tools for fundraising, organization, and sharing information are now part of Democratic campaign culture. This is a bad thing? Finally, a political point. Dean, by and by extension the Democrats, are saying to young, wired voters: we want to be your party. It may not be enough -- there are of course plenty of conservative young people, and plenty of conservatives online, and anyway there can't be many people ready to vote for "the Internet candidate" instead of the candidate who makes the most convincing case on the economy, national security, etc. But in cultural terms, Dean's campaign has helped push the Democrats in front of a new generation, and that could yield dvidends for elections to come. 4:24:16 PM    comment []

Blogging of the President, tomorrow night, 9-11 eastern, on public radio, although apparently not on WUNC or WFDD --  but no worries, you can listen online. Jarvis has a list of the contributors, including (as noted in his comment section) me. Update: Here's the MPR page on the program. 9:40:05 AM    comment []

AP article on blogs, complete with a photo of Josh Marshall dressed like a journalist. The focus is on blogs as media, not much on use by campaigns themselves. Obligatory pooh-poohing by an "expert": "Larry Purpuro, coordinator of the Republicans' e.GOP Project in 2000, said many bloggers were little more than 'armchair analysts in their bathrobes (with) no serious interest in leaving their living rooms to actually help the campaigns.'" True enough, I guess -- but by the same logic, shouldn't every article about campaign coverage by Fox News and CNN include a paragraph noting that much television news is devoted to sensational murder and rape trials with no serious interest in actually covering the campaigns? 9:21:27 AM    comment []