Politicians Catch on to Blogging

Jason Jardine wrote to mention a C|Net report on an increase in the use of blogs by politicians in the U.S. capitol. From the article: "Just a year ago, a DailyKos posting from someone like John Kerry would have been all but unheard of, and blogging of any kind by members of Congress was almost nonexistent. But now that dynamic is starting to change, and slowly, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are beginning to appreciate the value of blogs. 'When I reach out to the blog community, it gives me an opportunity to begin a dialogue with an extremely politically sophisticated and active community that I otherwise might not be able to reach,' Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com."

Comments

One minor point

[winkydink]

If you really believe that the pols themselves are actually writing, or even reading these, I've got a bridge in Manhattan I'll let you have very cheap. This is a staffer job.

mostly waste of time

[superwiz]

Modern electoral politics is all about leverging centralized media influence on people who are too lazy to find their own sources of info. Bloggin is just the opposite -- it allows people to seek the opinions of strangers rather than just passively receive them. It won't work for the mass-distribution of the lies whose sole intent is to empower corruption that has become modern political process.

Re:mostly waste of time

[pfhlick]

Perhaps this is a step towards bringing the political process closer to home. Blogging may not have a great impact on national politics but think about its potential for local politics - the offices held by the poor bastards on the bottom, who make decisions every day that directly affect the people around them. Here's a way to bring the town meeting into your living room, or coffee shop, or library. I don't expect miracles, but I'd bet you that some politicians will embrace the medium.

Howard Dean

[mysqlrocks]

This all start with the Howard Dean campaign using blogging and other online tools to raise money. Now other politicians are catching on to how they can use it. Blogging is old news to slashdotters but I'm sure there are a lot of politicians who still would ask, "What's a blog again?" In the next few years (maybe in '08) I predict someone will tap into the power of wikis for campaigning and fund-raising purposes. But let's let them get their heads around blogs first :-)

Re:Howard Dean

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you might ask, what about vandalism? OK, how's this for spin? Politician: "My opponent has stooped to the level of recruiting people to vandalize my campaign wiki instead of mobilizing them to write legitimate content." That's one quick way to mitigate vandalism, use it as ammunition against the opponent.

Wow... you mean more of the campaign could be spent talking about the opponent's campaign tactics, instead of issues? Then, the opponent could toss allegations that his staff are being framed, and that the vandalism was faked in order to garner more media attention! That would be a fabulous way for technology to further democracy! I sure am looking forward to that!

Blogs vs. Sanitized Websites

[GuruThrill]

What's the big difference between a politician's blog and their already sanitized websites? I'm sure that even if they are the ones writing entries, they have them reviewed before posting.

Media ownership

[PIPBoy3000]

It may also be a way to bypass the more common venue of television, which some argue is becoming increasingly controlled by Republican interests. Newspapers are generally seen as more liberal, though readership is declining across the board. Regardless of who controls the big television news outlets, I think it's extremely valuable to have a broad range of methods for politicians to reach constituents.

Re:politically sophisticated crowd?

[robertjw]

is no more politically sophisticated than my 10th grade english class was.

Which makes them about 10 times more sophisticated than the rest of America that hit the peak of their political sophistication in the 10th grade and have beeen declining ever since.

What would be interesting

[MikeRT]

Is if they actually got involved full time with the blogosphere, at the same level as the "A-list" bloggers. Same legal restrictions, everything. And one other, very important thing. It's not enough that they open up comments, they need to do trackbacks to. Nothing can get a debate going on between bloggers like trackbacks. They're a good way to make sure that the other side doesn't have an excuse to make wild assertions and then say, "well no one challenged me."

Of course they'd shit a brick if people started providing factual trackbacks, especially ones that reference opensecrets.org on pet projects. Imagine a democratic senator getting called out on their support for repressive copyright law or a republican getting forced to own up to links to pharmaceuticals when they oppose drug liberalization measures.

Re:As a conservative

[rblum]

You know what? The original poster had a good point - it *is* important how you present yourself. As long as you keep it in sync with what you purport to represent, nothing wrong with that.

You know another thing? I'm sick and tired of people resorting to foul language at any and every opportunity. The grandparent was a civilized post - you're presenting the image of somebody foaming at the mouth. And that's *exactly* the image that no politican - left or right - wants to associate with.