POLITICS
Blog Along in Your Hymnals
By Stump Connolly
The Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina last week was of mild interest to me in that it was the first time all eight contenders appeared on stage together. Unfortunately, I found myself technically-challenged because I am too cheap to buy the second-tier cable channel MSNBC that carried the event and the webcast version, on the MSNBC website co-owned by Microsoft, is still not-available in a Mac-based Safari browser.
This left me searching for alternatives, one of which turned out to be a host of internet commentators who were “live blogging” from the event site. If trees were still involved in the dissemination of news, I would have to say this was a waste of good wood. In our now wired 24/7 internet world, it proved to be just a waste of time, which is why political blogging has become such a popular sport in America.
Campaigns & Elections LINK, a bellweather source for campaign consultants and other political junkies, lists 419 sites in its directory of political blogs. Technorati LINK, which has a more free form definition, puts the number of blogs about politics at 74,580. But even that estimate is probably low since there are many more kitchen table commentaries, in all varieties of red state, blue state, liberal, conservative, libertarian and just plain snarky versions, hanging around in the MySpaces of the world.
As a matter of full disclosure, I too once had a blog. I started it in the early stages of the 2004 presidential campaign, but it soon became apparent I did not have the requisite number of opinions a day to keep up with the frenetic pace of my colleagues. So I settled back into my role as chief political correspondent of The Week Behind, taking full advantage of the seven day lull to collect my thoughts, do a little reporting, and present the reader with what mainstream media types still quaintly call “a story.”
There are other websites on the internet that do this, and do it well. Slate and Salon have excellent political reporters capable of crafting stories, and there is much excitement about the new Politico.com LINK, started last January by Washington Post veterans John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei. In only a few months, they have corralled a staff of campaign trail veterans (my favorite is their chief political correspondent Roger Simon) and given them the resources to roam the political landscape as only an internet start-up can. When you add in all the efforts the mainstream media are making to post up their political stories on internet sites in a timely fashion, political junkies have a wealth of coverage to access.
But it’s probably a good idea to make the distinction right now between reporters who cover politics and bloggers who . . . what’s the word I’m looking for here . . . blog politics.
I started my search for blog coverage of the debate at Politico.com where, sure enough, Ben Smith is live blogging from the event. It took me only a few minutes to realize watching a presidential debate in the presence of a live blogger is like sitting in the stands at a baseball game next to loudmouth who won’t shut up. Moment by moment, you can feel Smith straining for a comment on every sally, scarfing up rapid response notes for filler and, if there isnothing to write, offering shout outs to his fellow reporters.
I switched over to the live blog MSNBC was doing in The News Hole LINK. Now I wasn’t sitting next to one drunk. I was sitting in a whole section of them blogging out one-liners about everyone and everything, including when was the best time to go out and have a cigarette.
I peeked in on the aptly named Instapundit LINK where I discovered Glenn Reynolds, always ahead of his time, live blogging the live bloggers – telling us instanteously the instanteous comments he was reading on his favorite blogs. From Ann Althouse in Madison, to Jason writing for his MySpace page from a couch in Albuquerque, to Tigerhawk in Princeton, New Jersey, the debate was all things Gravel, Reynolds reports.
In the new Democratic politics of the internet, The Daily Kos LINK has become blog central so I next switched over to see how they were doing. What started four years ago as Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s personal campaign diary has blossomed into a major force on the left wing of the party. Through his website, Kos (his username) endorses candidates, raises money for their campaigns and, at the same time, publishes political “diaries” from a growing list of like-minded contributors.
On any given day, about 600,000 people tune into The Daily Kos. Bolstered by the local successes of his democratic congressional endorsees in 2006, Kos held a convention of over 1,000 political bloggers in Las Vegas last year that attracted more than one potential 2008 democratic contender.
The Daily Kos did not disappoint. Its home page was a virtual cacophony of blogging wit and wisdom. An “open thread” drew some 511 comments – and that was only during the first half of the debate. Here’s a typical exchange in only a few minutes (numbers in the parentheses are how many people agree/disagree with the comment):
_ Barack (9+ / 0-) Doesn't sound
nearly as smooth as I would have imagined. Gravel is an idiot. He was badmouthing
the resolution that passed today. He said Congress should pass a law making
it a crime to stay in Iraq. That is just STUPID!
by manyoso
_ I second your Obama comment (4+ / 0-) Most people won't
hear him in person, and on the radio/tv I've never found him too convincing.
I'm glad that Gravel is there. he's another voice, and I think that's needed.
by skiddie
_ Barack... (1+ / 0-) hasn't really been answering questions
today.
by WhyWhat
_ Not Just Today... (5+ / 0-)
by Grand Poobah
_As a constituent I agree (1+ / 0-)
by flatford39
_Gravel is right, though (2+ / 0-) It's too bad that he comes
across as way too eccentric. He's useful, though. He makes the other candidates
look more reasonable.
by metal prophet
_Gravel delivers the best Adm. Stockdale (22+ / 0-) impersonation
in years. "Who am I? Why am I here?" Indeed.
by Mogolori
_THANK YOU! (7+ / 0-) I could not figure out who he reminded
me of. LOL
Bush Sucks. 'nuf said.
by Lobsters
_GRIDLOCK!!! n/t :) (1+ / 0-) Obama-rama!
by boofdah
_Obama's performance thus far... (6+ / 0-) can be described
at shaky at best.
by Trix
_I agree. He's clearly (7+ / 0-) been trying on the campaign
trail in general not to go for the quick sound-bites, and that's good, because
he does need to move beyond reliance the dazzling smile and the charisma.
But in a debate you need to go for at least moderately quick answers.
by MissLaura
_Someone said he's not a good debater (0+ / 0-) . .. in his
Senatorial campaign, if I recall correctly. Not a good sign ... so much seems
to depend on debates in the general.
by cedubose
_Gravel rocks (11+ / 0-) Dodd too.
by Carolyn in Baltimore
_I suddenly love Gravel (10+ / 0-) He is amazing!
"Scotty, get me the fuck outta here!" Jim Kirk
by steelman
_Gravel Is Terrible (8+ / 0-) He seriously thinks that Edwards/Obama/Clinton
is going to pre-emptively nuke Iran? Get this guy off the stage, he's just
wasting time attacking straw men.
George Dubya Bush Blows GWBblows Blog
by GWBblows
It is dangerous to paint all bloggers with the broad brush of self-indulgence. Mickey Kaus, who may have started it all with his Kausfiles, continues to be a timely, provocative voice in Slate. And I was a great admirer of Will Saletan’s live blog from the floor of the Democratic convention in 2004 where he perfectly described a scene that I witnessed sitting only 100 yards away.
But not every debate the Republicans or Democrats hold this season merits this kind of attention. In this new world where everyone can be a pundit, we must be careful of what we pretend to be because we are what we pretend to be, as Kurt Vonnegut famously stated. A world where everyone is a pundit is a world where punditry is the toilet paper of politics, useful only to wipe your own ass.
I suppose there is some odd value in all this. In the mash-up of insta-commentary, it’s clear Mike Gravel has catapulted out of the obscurity of being a former Alaska Senator into the next Dennis Kucinich. (And one enterprising blogger, midway through the debate, was already taking orders for T-shirts and bumper stickers saying “Gravel Rocks!”)
It’s going to be a long campaign and it’s hard to see how all this idle prattle amounts to much more than preaching to the choir. But MSNBC reports that the televised debate was viewed by 2 million people. Not all have their own blog so, obviously, somebody was listening.
