Blog or Die?
Patrick Hynes has an American Spectator Online piece concerning the future of blogging in politics. A sample:
Color me skeptical of this Blog Supreme Meme.
Look, there is no doubt that bloggers have provided a much-needed, realtime palliative to MSM, continuing the work undertaken by talk radio. The instantaneous investigation and open-source networking of the blogosphere is a huge innovation, one which is already having enormous impact.
One could even say that George W. Bush's 2004 victory, which surprised so many jihadists of the Hair Helmet Hamas, was so shocking in part because bloggers helped to form a vast, grassroots network of Bush supporters virtually invisible to the Kerry campaign and its water carriers in the media.
But as Han Solo memorably warned, "Don't get cocky, kid."
The DNC is using bloggers primarily for fundraising and message-spreading channels. This is what we'd expect of the Democrat Hive-Mind, where "independent" voices like Susan Estrich dutifully call DNC headquarters to get their talking points of the day. Politics on the Left is, as one would predict, a command economy lorded over by the party nomenklatura.
This simply isn't the case with the GOP. Dubya's grassroots support came about because people love the guy. This fondness extends beyond (indeed, some would say in spite of) his Administration's policy positions.
Bloggers on the Right naturally tend to align with principle first, party second. We're more easily discouraged, therefore, when someone lacking Bush's unique charm steps off the ideological reservation. The reaction of the righty bloggers to Arlen Spector's judiciary chairmanship afford a case study. Many Republicans would rather see a Democratic senator in Pennsylvania than see Arlen Spector get that gig. Ideology trumps party.
In exploiting the blogosphere, then, the GOP needs to proceed cautiously. If a Republican presidential candidate wants to win in 2008, he needs to listen to the Righty bloggers as well as talk. The GOP hasn't been as poll-driven as the Democrats, given that their platform has a natural majoritarian appeal that proponents of abortion on demand, slavery reparations, and gay marriage simply will never get outside of their natural New York/LA habitat. A better investment would be to hire campaign people to be active participants in blog communities. Better still would be a candidate who could type (and even blog) himself.
I don't think the blogs are powerful enough yet that we can't safely be ignored. If we were so powerful, why is Arlen Spector going to be chairman of the one indispensable Senate committee?
Tactics like this will only get easier -- and more necessary -- as blogs continue to proliferate. I'm not just talking about political blogs. A campaign cannot win simply by having a direct line into Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit.com (though that wouldn't hurt). Targeting lifestyle blogs will be fundamental to electoral success in the future.
Color me skeptical of this Blog Supreme Meme.
Look, there is no doubt that bloggers have provided a much-needed, realtime palliative to MSM, continuing the work undertaken by talk radio. The instantaneous investigation and open-source networking of the blogosphere is a huge innovation, one which is already having enormous impact.
One could even say that George W. Bush's 2004 victory, which surprised so many jihadists of the Hair Helmet Hamas, was so shocking in part because bloggers helped to form a vast, grassroots network of Bush supporters virtually invisible to the Kerry campaign and its water carriers in the media.
But as Han Solo memorably warned, "Don't get cocky, kid."
The DNC is using bloggers primarily for fundraising and message-spreading channels. This is what we'd expect of the Democrat Hive-Mind, where "independent" voices like Susan Estrich dutifully call DNC headquarters to get their talking points of the day. Politics on the Left is, as one would predict, a command economy lorded over by the party nomenklatura.
This simply isn't the case with the GOP. Dubya's grassroots support came about because people love the guy. This fondness extends beyond (indeed, some would say in spite of) his Administration's policy positions.
Bloggers on the Right naturally tend to align with principle first, party second. We're more easily discouraged, therefore, when someone lacking Bush's unique charm steps off the ideological reservation. The reaction of the righty bloggers to Arlen Spector's judiciary chairmanship afford a case study. Many Republicans would rather see a Democratic senator in Pennsylvania than see Arlen Spector get that gig. Ideology trumps party.
In exploiting the blogosphere, then, the GOP needs to proceed cautiously. If a Republican presidential candidate wants to win in 2008, he needs to listen to the Righty bloggers as well as talk. The GOP hasn't been as poll-driven as the Democrats, given that their platform has a natural majoritarian appeal that proponents of abortion on demand, slavery reparations, and gay marriage simply will never get outside of their natural New York/LA habitat. A better investment would be to hire campaign people to be active participants in blog communities. Better still would be a candidate who could type (and even blog) himself.
I don't think the blogs are powerful enough yet that we can't safely be ignored. If we were so powerful, why is Arlen Spector going to be chairman of the one indispensable Senate committee?
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