Politics have a way of putting the blah-blah in blogs.
There’s no more dangerous verbal vortex on the Web than a blog’s dreaded “Open Thread,” allowing every partisan nut-job without a real job to comment on the political fracas du jour.
“Did-not-did-too!” would cover 9 out of 10 postings on an average day.
But for party junkies and addicted red state/blue state handicappers, local and national political blogs require multiple daily check-ins.
Did Bill Ritter actually change his stance on gay marriage amid his Democratic bid for the governorship?
Does Marilyn Musgrave face a serious threat to her U.S. House seat in District 4?
And what the heck is a “macaca,” anyway, and why did YouTube.com score so many hits for showing U.S. Sen. George Allen using the bizarre word in his Virginia re-election bid?
Remember that political blogs are not necessarily writing directly to you and me. Like all forms of communication, new or old, blogs want readership, the more the better. A few hundred faithful might make loyal customers, but a blog’s real goal is to stir up a controversy that rocket-boosts out of the blogosphere and into the hated – yet highly sought – “mainstream media.”
“The Holy Grail of all these sites is to drive the mainstream media,” said Eric Anderson of the Denver policy consulting firm Sondermann/E-Squared Partners. “To get them to acknowledge and then amplify what they’re doing.”
A video posted on blogs recently caught U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican, allegedly sleeping through a hearing. In the 2004 U.S. Senate race in South Dakota, bloggers paid by the campaign of Republican candidate John Thune successfully accused the local newspapers of bias in favor of Democratic incumbent Tom Daschle. The newspaper’s coverage changed; Thune won a narrow victory.
Campaigns also tie their opponents to notorious blogs to score points with independents. DailyKos.com is a vigorously lefty site that pushes Democratic candidates and is one of the most popular political blogs on the Internet. When Kos bloggers started talking up Ritter’s candidacy, the state Republican Party issued a press release asking if Ritter was “a friend to the sensible people of Colorado or the outrageously liberal bloggers at DailyKos?”
Bryant Adams, communications director for Colorado Republicans, called blogs a “useful tool” that allow people who “aren’t really entrenched in the party structure to have an influence on policy.” While disdaining the views of sites like DailyKos, Adams checks in on the popular conservative blogs such as Redstate.com, Powerlineblog.com and HughHewitt.com.
Local blogs have made it to the favorite places column on most activists’ computers. Few people will vouch for their consistent accuracy, but hey, in politics, it’s often the unfounded rumors that can have the biggest impact.
ColoradoConfidential.com and Squarestate.net offer a “progressive” take on local political developments, so filter their postings through your own world view. But Squarestate in particular offers links to useful information, including the results of past elections in Colorado. Coloradopols.com is gossipy, sharply written and also left-leaning, with operatives from both major parties admitting they check in regularly for the oddsmaking and rumor-mongering.
From a right-of-center perspective, Claycalhoun.com blogs on local politics and offers links to a number of local and national blogs, including members of the Rocky Mountain Alliance of Blogs.
For every “favorite” bookmark, there’s usually a “favorite-to-hate.” Alejandra Gonzales, communications director for the Colorado Democratic Party, likes to check out the libertarian-tinged views of the Independence Institute at i2i.org – “when I want a good laugh,” she said.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-954-1686 or at mbooth@denverpost.com; try the Screen Team blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
