The best analysis of blogs and politics I have read in a long time. (This does not concern those who post here and have blogs, but people like kos, DU, myDD, ...)
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10642
Net Effects
By Ezra Klein
Issue Date: 12.20.05
It’s not exactly rare to see the blogosphere in an uproar. But the recent row between supporters of Paul Hackett and backers of Representative Sherrod Brown, who are vying for the Democratic nomination for senator from Ohio, was a bit odder than most. In this fight, the “netroots,” the term for the blogosphere and the online activists who populate it, has come out against a committed liberal and natural ally in favor of a brash Iraq War veteran with a more conservative bent and a paltry political record.
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A quick rundown of candidates they’ve thrown significant support to illuminates the point: Howard Dean, a free-trading budget hawk who had the virtue of appearing ready to throw a punch at Joe Lieberman or George W. Bush, whoever stepped in range first; Wesley Clark, a retired four-star general with no domestic record to speak of and an unclear stance on the war; Stephanie Herseth, a South Dakotan representative with a lukewarm 55 percent from Americans for Democratic Action; Brad Carson, a candidate for Senate in Oklahoma with an anti-choice, pro-business voting record. The list continues. What these candidates have in common is not a commitment to liberal policy making but an assumed ability to win and a demonstrated willingness to fight. There are no ideological litmus tests here, only pugilistic ones.
The reality of this was best expressed to me by Bob Brigham, an outspoken Hackett supporter, prominent blogger, and key Hackett adviser during the special election campaign. When I asked him about Hackett’s reversal, now favoring withdrawal from Iraq, Brigham mocked the argument as “policy bullshit!” What matters, in other words, is not the policy but the image. And if Hackett appeared a critic of the war, in this age of media candidacies, that -- not his policy preferences on the issue -- is what counts.
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Blogs are getting ever more powerful. As fund-raisers, as kingmakers, and as opinion leaders, they’re being taken seriously. But at some point Democrats will win, and the netroots, after the victory glow wears off, will have a very tough question to answer: What, exactly, do they believe? And, more importantly, what do they want?