The Political Power of the Blogs
“Chicago — The YearlyKos Convention is attracting national notoriety for how bloggers are changing the political and media landscape. But while the spotlight is shining on a few of the 1,400 online pundits convened here who draw more readers than a lot of daily newspapers, the next frontier of political blogging will be led by people like Phillip Anderson.
Even though his blog gets only about 1,000 visitors a day - about one-five-hundredth as many readers as the DailyKos.com blog, the namesake of the conference.
Nevertheless, the mop-haired New Yorker already has the state party chair asking him for help reaching liberal voters. His allure: Local bloggers can influence the outcome of small elections.” —
Joe Garofoli, SF Chronicle, Saturday, August 4, 2007
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The Democrats understand the political power of blogs. All the Democrat presidential candidates attended a blogger convention in Chicago. The GOP has no such similar event. Most Democrat candidates have sections of their campaigns devoted to bloggers. Note that even county and state Democrat chairs work closely with bloggers–I know of no such effort on the GOP side While conservatives use talk radio to it’s maximum affect, we do not use bloggers as well. A month ago I was on a panel, moderated by CRP Vice Chair Tom Del Beccaro, with Carla Marinucci and Dan Weintraub. Both of them agreed that the Internet and blogs can have a strong influence on elections. OK, GOP leaders, lets catch up and pass the Democrats. We need the blogs to pass along information, direction and action items. Until we make full use of it, the Democrats will have the advantage. Pass this along to your friends and to GOP leaders. What do you think, how can we make better use of the blogs and the Internet? do you think the blogs are over rated?
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Steve Frank is the publisher of California Political News and Views and a Senior Contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is also a consultant currently working on gambling issues and advising other consultants on policy and coalition building.
August 6th, 2007 at 8:04 am
What the hell more can you do? You write letters, fill out dumbass questionnaires that frankly I doubt are even read, blog, make phone calls, send faxes, attend party events, yet except for the hardening of a few positions, Republican leadership remains obstinately rutted in 1950’s style mediority and Centrism.
Its definately time for a strong conservative third party. But which one has the potential to bring up a solidifying leader and rise to the top? Nary a one at this point.
Conservatives are or own worst enemy. We seem to be in agreement yet how stupidly nit picky we are about each and every candidate.
Maybe its time the Republican party really does self destruct.