politicalpartypoop.com

By David D. Perlmutter
USA Today, Monday October 2, 2006

 Recently, Bill Clinton went to the blogs. Now the political world might never be the same.

While blogging has caught on everywhere, presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton still does not blog — or at least not much. But her husband’s lunch with leftbloggers such as Atrios, MyDD’s Matt Stoller, Daily Kos’ McJoan and Americablog’s John (according to TalkLeft.com) might signal an innovative commitment to blogging for the office of commander in chief.

The attractions of blogging for politicians are many. Blogging directly reaches a national (and even global) audience without the filtering of the newspaper or the price of TV time. Blogging can render an aura of intimacy difficult to attain via traditional mass media. Blogging is also a boon for politicians out of the public eye. Former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards blogs and guest blogs and meets with bloggers.

The disadvantages of blogging for politicians are that it takes up time and that its stream-of-consciousness nature is a minefield of possible gaffes. Bloggers and their readers are high-maintenance. During Howard Dean’s effort in 2003-04, the campaign found it hard to keep up with the comments by bloggers on their websites, and thus many felt ignored.

These issues dog Hillary. She has been attacked regularly by leftbloggers for her centrist-to-conservative stances on issues such as the Iraq war and flag-burning. Her poll numbers are holding up, but political professionals understand that wildfires on the edges of public opinion can spread to the center.

   What, then, should be Hillary’s blog strategy?

Ignore the leftblogs.

Hillary could do nothing with, to or about Democratic blogs, assuming that they end up supporting her if she wins the first few presidential primaries. But bloggers are not a herd to be led. Also, there is the fear-and-loathing factor: George W. Bush and the Iraq war have spurred immense anger and mobilization of leftblogs. It is not clear that the 2008 Republican nominee (say, John McCain) will generate as much anti-pathy, especially if he promises an eventual pullout from Iraq. Nevertheless, as leftblogger Natasha “Pacific Views” Celine notes, any Republican who is conservative enough to win his party’s nomination will be perceived as quite threatening enough to motivate the online Democratic left. [And who knows where the center of public opinion about Iraq will be in 2008?]

Attack the leftblogs.

An intriguing option for Hillary is to use (or rather abuse) leftblogs to push her appeal to middle voters via a “Sister Souljah” moment, referring to the time in 1992 when Bill Clinton criticized the black, female rap artist. The political implication was that Clinton came off as a moderate Democrat not beholden to an “extremist” of the left and thus was more acceptable to sociocultural moderates and conservatives.

It might be tempting to “dis” a leftblog, preferably one that has made some heated statement about the Iraq war that is beyond the pale of mainstream U.S. public opinion. The danger is that this is not 1992. Sister Souljah could only complain to the media and her friends (by phone), whereas blogs can swarm the world with a mouse click.

Co-opt the leftblogs.

Hillary can meet with leftbloggers, brief them, feign respect for them, make the case that she must attract a majority of the electorate, and ask for help. And she can buy cooperation by hiring a major leftblogger who will sign on as a “consultant.” Indeed, she is hiring, among others, Peter Daou, of Salon.com’s Daou Report and director of blog operations for John Kerry in 2004.

 Hence the significance of Bill’s dine-in with the leftbloggers. Has the Clinton machine determined that Bill become the designated ambassador to the blogs? Proclaimed TalkLeft: “It was awesome.” Although, to many leftbloggers, affection for Bill does not transfer to Hillary, her perceived opportunism or her policies.

 How the Clintons play the blogs, or are played by them, is one of the most important political stories of the next few years. The 2006 and 2008 elections will be the coming-of-age era for political blogging and all the new, interactive, interlinking media technologies they have inspired. The blog political playbook is being written and will map out campaign strategies for generations to come.

David D. Perlmutter is a professor at the University of Kansas’ School of Journalism & Mass Communications and author of the forthcoming book Blogwars.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 8:30 am and is filed under Blog Watch, Washington, Liberal Education, 2008, 2006 Elections.
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