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

Depends on the office

[Aexia]

A John Kerry diary on DailyKos would obviously have been written by a staffer as would most "by" various Senators, but posts from House representatives and just about any candidate usually are written by the actual politician in question. My Congressman, Jim McDermott, even responds to comments to his posts.

Old news in canada

[guysmilee]

In the canadian election that just past most parties and blogs and or podcasts. The thing I personally found interesting was the fact that a poorly written blog that effectively says nothing really effected my vote. For example I found the liberal party blog extremely bad ... and I actually changed my vote because of it. I really hope politicians are savy about this (especially the "good politicians").

An interesting point...

[Lord_Slepnir]

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a political science major. He raised the point that in 10-20 years, politicians might regret what they had written in blogs. Imagine if John Q Polly is running for congressman, and someone digs up an old LiveJournal entry from back in his college days where he says something like "Screw the military. Every one of those dead US soldiers got what they deserved by working for the man". A stupid, impulsive comment which if brought to light would probally destroy his chances at office. 20-30 years ago his father might have said something like that in an editorial for the Berkley Daily, but on a web log it's a lot more accessable. Just a random thought.

Re:As a conservative

[acaben]

Well, I am foaming at the mouth. Go ahead, attack me for being angry and using language that upsets your delicate sensitivities, but I'm sick and fucking tired of idiots like the original poster attempting to paint all democratic politicians with the fringe brush because they choose to address large and diverse communities that, at the very edges, have some people who spout unpopular ideas. (And I'm tired of my side doing the same thing to republicans, too.) It's weak and intellectually dishonest, and I don't care how great it sounds in a 30 second commercial.

DailyKos has tens of thousands of registered members who come together to engage with each other and talk about political issues. Hundreds of thousands of words are posted every day on the site dealing with an incredibly diverse range of topics. The readership at DailyKos is higher than most print newspapers in this country. Are a couple people who post there fans of Dennis Kuccinich, sure? Socialists? Probably. Outspoken about beliefs that would get them laughed out of almost town in the country? You betcha.

But the overwhelming majority of people who frequent DailyKos are people who care about the future of this country, and I'll stand up and use my voice, profane and foaming as it may be, to say FUCK YOU to the likes of you and anyone else who dares try to lessen the impact the power they hold by playing intellectually dishonest advertising games like the original poster suggests. Get used to it, because there are many more than me who are fed up with politics as usual in this country.

They've heard the word "blog" all right

[ianscot]

Politicians may not know what the word means, but they've heard it all right. You hit the nail on the head:

This all start(ed) with the Howard Dean campaign using blogging and other online tools to raise money.

They caught that last part, believe me.

Heck, even beyond the money, politicos used "the blogosphere" with some success to spin their issues in the '04 election cycle, mere months after Dean's Iowa flameout. The newest wave of "Swift Boat Veteran" groups will try to drive all sorts of political wedges into the voting public via blogs.

Politicians aren't interested in its for its own sake, necessarily, but the uses aren't lost on them.