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Archive for November, 2006

Makin’ Copies

Published by William Beutler on November 19, 2006 in Asymmetrical Media, Second Life and Wikipedia. 1 Comment

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten gives a good overview of the threat the CopyBot application poses to the economy of Second Life. If you’re not familiar with the Second Life metaverse, but you do recall the “World of Warcraft”-themed season premiere of “South Park” this fall, then the situation Felten describes might ring a bell:

If you’re not familiar with virtual worlds, you might think the word “economy” is a stretch. But really it’s not. SecondLife has about 1.5 million residents. Residents are given a sophisticated toolset they can use to design complex objects, specifying the objects’ shape, appearance, and behavior. Objects can be sold for a currency called Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars are real money — they can be traded for U.S. dollars on currency exchange markets. Quite a few people make their living in SecondLife, running businesses that make Linden-Dollar profits, which are then cashed in for U.S. dollars. Most days, the SecondLife economy sees transactions worth a total of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 (real U.S. dollars). This is clearly a real economy.

To understand the possible impact of CopyBot, imagine such a thing existed in real life. Point this CopyGadget at any real-world object, push a button, and you get a perfect copy of that object. Want a new Lambourghini sportscar? Just find one in a parking lot and copy it. Like the lime sorbet at the local ice cream parlor? Buy a cup, take it home, and fill your freezer with copies. When you get down to the last cup in the freezer, just copy it again. You get the idea.

I’ve been getting to know Second Life for a few weeks now, and even though political uses of the virtual world are not directly susceptible to this kind of chicanery, it certainly poses an indirect threat. Sure, Second Life is big now — but so were Napster and Friendster.

If there is nothing else to be learned here, do not name your company anything ending in “-ster.” If there is something else to be learned from this, it’s that Second Life creator Linden Labs must settle this quickly and definitively. According to New World Notes, the actual damage so far is very limited, but that’s no reason to sigh with relief. As that business with John Seigenthaler goes to show, even a minor problem can be magnified many times in the media’s perception — especially if you’re doing something new and unproven, like a user-written encyclopedia or user-built virtual world.

P.S. Because I can never resist using an available screen grab, here’s the Second Life version of yours truly chilling out on the seaside balcony of a Japanese-themed luxury home:

William Beutler in Second Life

Yes, I am sitting fully-clothed in an operational hot tub. Considering that I’m also trespassing, that’s probably for the better.

The Secret of Our Success

Published by William Beutler on November 19, 2006 in Gawker Media, Metapost, Seriously and Website Design. 2 Comments

This week the Gawker Media flagship blog offered some tongue-in-cheek but nevertheless sage blogging advice to their boss/new co-worker Nick Denton:

When all else fails, never underestimate the power of a screengrab to masquerade as actual content. It’s quick, it’s easy, and requires little effort on your part.

It’s true: Screen grabs — a.k.a. screen shots and screen caps — are the perfect complement to almost any under-developed blog post. In addition to the virtues listed above, screen captures are often intriguing, revelatory, even thought-provoking. At a bare minimum, they can add a dash of color to a gray block of text (which you may have borrowed from the very same website). Of course, since Blog P.I. is largely devoted to covering other websites, I’m pretty sure we’ve got more justification than most.

More seriously, if there is any downside to using screen shots — other than overusing them, of course — it might be that they undermine your ability to drive traffic to the sites you’ve linked (not that Blog P.I. drives much traffic). Why should readers bother following the link if you’ve already shown them what you’re talking about?

That said, there are many good uses of screen shots: to capture a moment in time, whether an embarrassment soon to be erased or merely a page you know will not be archived; to focus on a small area on the page; to show something that is not on the World Wide Web.

So let’s hear it for the screen shot — the underused and underestimated shortcut of meta-bloggers everywhere.

IPDI/Edelman on Political Blogging (and Wal-Mart)

Published by William Beutler on November 18, 2006 in Blog Consultants, Blogger Panels, Blogs vs. MSM, Journalist Bloggers, Meatspace and Tech Blogosphere. 3 Comments

Edelman/IPDI LogosBecause I’m a sucker for nametags and PowerPoint presentations, during lunchtime hours on Wednesday I attended a panel discussion co-sponsored by GWU’s Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet (yes, “Politics Democracy”; no, I’m not sure which word is supposed to modify the other) and PR agency Edelman*. But there was another reason to attend, and Edelman was it — the advertised presence of CEO Richard Edelman, that is.

If you don’t follow business or PR blogs, then you may not be aware of the ethical scrape Edelman recently got its blue chip client, Wal-Mart, into. The friction involved revelations that a few presumably grassroots pro-Wal-Mart blogs were in fact astroturf blogs — one might call them “astroblogs,” if the term “flog” wasn’t already gaining popularity.

To recap, as briefly as possible: In early October, BusinessWeek revealed that a blog called Wal-Marting Across America — featuring a couple driving their RV cross-country, using Wal-Mart parking lots as rest stops — was conceived and launched by Edelman on behalf of Working Families for Wal-Mart. The problem is, none of the parties involved disclosed the arrangement. Once outed, the blog was quickly shuttered.

In short order, B.L. Ochman called on WOMMA to throw Edelman out for having violated a code of ethics Edelman had helped develop, Richard Edelman started doing damage control on the company’s own website, his firm fessed up to two more flogs, and Edelman-employed blogger Steve Rubel drew flak for saying as little as possible about the incident (though he did not work on these Wal-Mart projects). It was quite the swarm.

In the end, WOMMA put Edelman on probation and the company started posting disclosures to their still-extant Wal-Mart blogs. So naturally, if Richard Edelman was going to be taking questions from the audience at a blogger conference, I would have to be there.

However — guess who didn’t show? Richard Edelman. And guess who did show? Activists from Wal-Mart Watch. They stood outside the lobby of the conference room at George Washington University handing out flyers titled “THE WAL-MART BFLOG.”

·      ·      ·

Nevertheless, there was still a panel discussion to be attended. Because the conversation ranged across many topics, allow me to fall back on the ol’ faithful of transition-averse writers — the bullet-point:

IPDI Political Blog Trends Conference Presentation

  • Perhaps the main reason for convening the panel was a new survey by Edelman’s research arm, StrategyOne, titled “Blog Readership in the USA.” Danny Glover has already recapped most of the findings at Technology Daily, so I won’t go into them here. I will point out that whereas the Edelman study focused on all blogs, the panel discussion was titled “Trends in Political Blogging” — which gave the discussion a mild case of multiple-personality disorder during the Q&A period.
  • For example, StrategyOne found that half of all blog readers are in the 18-24 age range, whereas BlogAds and ComScore surveys have shown that readers of political blogs tend to be middle-aged. Panelist Jacki Schechner of CNN offered that at CNN’s recent election night party, their invited bloggers were mostly aged 35-50, and almost none of them were below 30. Because political blogs were what post attendees were interested in, IPDI (note: pronounced “ipdee,” not “I-P-D-I”) director Carol Darr called on BlogAds founder Henry Copeland to generalize about numbers related to the political blogosphere. His estimates: About 100,000 people are blogging daily with an audience of “more than just their friends.” Some 10,000 of them have what could be considered a “commercial audience” — at least 1,000 daily readers (and keep in mind there are only 50,000 brick and mortar journalists in the U.S.). And how many readers of political blogs? Copeland thinks it’s somewhere between 2 and 5 million.
  • RNC eCampaign director Patrick Ruffini, another panelist, praised the netroots’ Use It Or Lose It pre-election campaign, in which liberal bloggers called on safe incumbents with big warchests to donate more to fellow Dems in tight races — or else. Ruffini figures they probably raised as much money then as by collecting the small donations bloggers are best known for. Another good point from Ruffini: When candidates’ positions are fairly similar, such as in a primary campaign, blogs become all the more influential.
  • Edelman Paris representative Guillaume Du Gardier made a great point about podcasting (or netcasting) and video-casting (no one likes “vlogging”) — while often mentioned in the same breath as blogging, they are more top-down, like traditional media. Blogs are a conversation, but podcasts tend to be one-way communications. I would add, this is one reason why YouTube has been so successful — it makes video-blogging almost as interactive as a regular text-based weblog.
  • Schechner said doesn’t consider journalists who blog to be “bloggers” — if your voice is already represented in the media, then you can’t properly be one. I follow that, but it seems incomplete. Not a few bloggers hate the term “blog” and by logical extension, the term “blogger,” too. And it is certainly used as a term of derision, mostly in meatspace rather than cyberspace. Maybe it would be nice to do away with the term, but it’s just not going to happen. Perhaps it would be better to redefine it: Jeff Jarvis likes to say journalism is an act, not a profession — but surely the same must be true of blogging. But if you’re a call center manager whose blog is mentioned in the New York Times, they’re still going to call you a “blogger” on first reference.

IPDI Political Blog Trends Conference Panel

  • Responding to Schechner’s actual point, I would say that a blogging journalist who often links to “true” bloggers should be considered part of the blogosphere. Will Bunch of the Philly Daily News-hosted Attytood is one who does. Chris Cillizza, who writes The Fix for the Washington Post, does not. So you don’t have to be a blogger first to be a part of the blogosphere, while having a blog does not necessarily make you a blogger. This ticket has not been resolved.
  • Bias and balance are an eternal theme of political bloggers right and left, as both believe the mainstream media favors the other side. But this also extends to non-partisan panel discussions, evidenced by a representative from NewAssignment.Net asking if any effort was made to court Democratic representation. (In addition to Ruffini, StrategyOne research director Robert Moran mentioned he had previously worked in GOP politics.) You could tell that Darr didn’t want to say “No.” She said they had sought a range of views, hinted that panelist Bill Allison’s Sunlight Foundation wasn’t exactly a member of the VRWC, and added that Schechner represented “the media.” Pressed about whether IPDI had specifically sought a Democrat for the panel, she conceded the answer was: “No.”
  • The consensus seemed to be that if the Internet had existed in 1976, Ronald Reagan would have defeated Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination. I tend not to ponder such impossible “what ifs,” but that one is interesting to think about.
  • Predictions for 2008? Schechner believes candidates will be better schooled in the ways of the blog. Ruffini wants to see better wireless capability for field organizing — SMS isn’t sophisticated enough. Moran predicted the “ad guys in Old Town” will start getting “jealous” (call me a pedant if you must, but the proper word is “envious”), because blog advisers will start getting the good salaries. Personally, that’s the one I’m counting on.
  • And nobody said a word about the Edelman/Wal-Mart controversy.

*Full disclosure: Edelman is a competitor of my employer. At my last job, I spoke at an event co-sponsored by Edelman. I also know a handful of current and former Edelman employees, whom I count as friends or friendly acquaintances.

A (NZ) Bearish Take on the New Republican Leadership

Published by William Beutler on November 16, 2006 in Campaigns, Internecine Battles, PorkBusters, RNC and Republicans. 1 Comment

The Senate Republicans chose their leadership today, and while no one was much surprised or upset by Mitch McConnell’s ascension to Minority Leader, the return of Trent Lott to the whip position — which he held a decade ago, before becoming leader and then becoming the first major public figure to be brought low by the blogosphere — is not pleasing anyone. The leftosphere excepted, of course.

On Friday the House GOP votes on its leadership, and if conventional wisdom holds, the rightosphere may find the results even more disappointing.

Perhaps hoping to forestall the expected defeat of conservative favorites Mike Pence (for leader) and John Shadegg (for whip), pseudonymous GOP blog organizer NZ Bear — first known for his link and traffic ratings (which he compiled as a hobby long before Technorati went into business) and later for leading the Porkbusters effort — put together a successful series of conference calls wherein leadership contenders submitted themselves to the questions of conservative bloggers. (These were covered most diligently by Blog P.I.’s Higgins, Extreme Howard Mortman.)

Some of the questions were drawn from a concurrent project — the collection of nearly 300 reader-submitted questions, which were subsequently voted on by 1,135 bloggers and blog-reading individuals.

The conference calls have now concluded, and the vote is back in the hands of the House GOP caucus (where, come to think, it actually always was). But I thought it would still be worth grabbing the top- and bottom-ranked questions, as they give a pretty good insight to what the rightosphere thinks is important (and unimportant) for the 110th Congress.

First, the three most popular:

    Question: Will the GOP support a “no earmark” policy. If not, why not?
    Popularity: +564

    Question: Will you actually defend yourselves in the mainstream media, and assign some members to a continous media communications task, or instead allow the MSM to paint you however they wish, especially to independent voters? I realize that Lynne Cheney is not an elected official, but her recent CNN interview is quite instructive.
    Popularity: +506

    Question: What is your position on immigration? Specifically: 1. Are you in favor of funding and building the 700 mile fence on the Southern border? 2. Do you support stronger enforcement of criminal laws and civil sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants? 3. Are you for or against an expanded guest worker program and how/when would you implement such a program? 4. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants currently living in the US and, if so, what specific provisions do you support?
    Popularity: +413

There are a few irregularities here; that last one asks several distinct questions, whereas the second entry — besides possibly being planted by Dick Cheney — is really more of a complaint than a query.

However, the hot-button concerns above are definitely expressed more coherently than the not-so-hot-button issues at the end of the long list:

    Question: Since, after Nov. 7, the GOP is toast this election cycle, what brand of butter do you prefer, and will that preference change after more toast becomes available after the election cycle ending in 2008?
    Popularity: -37

    Question: Please stand up…don’t hide…and grow some ball’s..in other word’s be for the GOP
    Popularity: -41

    Question: Will you make it a goal to make the party more appealing to moderate secular voters or will you continue the policy of reliance on the Evangelical movement?
    Popularity: -56

Whoever submitted that last question can be legitimately unhappy that it was deemed even less popular than the practice of spelling “balls” with an errant apostrophe.

While we’re on the subject of conservative blogger discontent with the GOP’s post-election moves, here’s what they think of the White House’s endorsement of Florida Sen. Mel Martinez over outgoing Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to be chairman of the Republican National Committee, according to a poll conducted by Hot Air:

Rightosphere overwhelmingly favors Michael Steele to Mel Martinez for RNC chair

The right-blogosphere could have a couple of long years ahead of it — at least.

I Am Jack’s YouTube Account

Published by William Beutler on November 14, 2006 in Asymmetrical Media, Blog Consultants, Blogging Officials, Campaigns, Candidate Bloggers, Earned Media, Facebook, Republicans and Social Networking. 3 Comments

Where there is new media — or a new comedy show in the mass media — Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) is sure to be found. Now that Kingston is seeking the House GOP conference chairmanship, you can find him making his pitch on YouTube:

He’s in a crowded field, facing fellow Southerners Adam Putnam and Marsha Blackburn plus Southern Californian Dan Lungren, and because these things are won and lost behind closed doors (perhaps even doors slightly ajar, if one speaks softly enough) this online whistle-stop is little more than a stunt.

But so far it’s earned cautious praise from Robert Bluey at Human Events and gleeful derision from Alex Pareene at Wonkette — in other words, it’s working like a charm.

And how long has the congressman been a member of YouTube?

Jack Kingston's YouTube Account

Six months is none too shabby — that’s almost half the billion-dollar startup’s young life. (I’ve never met Kingston aide David All, but he must be worth the $6,500 Kingston let Mike Bouchard pay him in September.) Then again, as Senator-elect James Webb’s Facebook wrangler discovered last month, when it comes to social networking, politicians have to be warier of who links to them than most:

Racist Comment On Jack Kingston's YouTube Account

Whoops! Borat might be able to get away with saying things like that, but for Rep. Kingston, it may be time to change those account settings.

P.S. Here’s Abbi Tatton from CNN’s “Situation Room” yesterday afternoon, on the YouTube video:

It went to all his Republican colleagues. His office said it’s easier to get people’s attention with a video than a piece of paper.

So apparently it’s not just for the blogger crowd. It’s difficult to see why this would have any noticeable effect on his fellow MoCs — to say nothing of his promises to seek out advice from Hollywood conservatives like Ben Stein and David Horowitz — although one thing it certainly does is put the same visual media in front of both members and bloggers. Whatever problems the message has, it must be worth something to try putting the two camps on the same (web) page.

Yea, Though I Walk Through The Valleywag of the Shadow of Death…

Published by William Beutler on November 14, 2006 in Blog Fights, Comment Sections, Gawker Media, Instapundit, Journalist Bloggers, Relaunches, Tech Blogosphere, Tough Crowd and Website Design. 2 Comments

Readers of Blog P.I. probably don’t venture very far into the tech blogosphere (a.k.a. the first blogosphere) but one of its higher profile, more controversial sites, is Valleywag. It’s another title owned by Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, where since February of this year, editor Nick Douglas (formerly of publicity stunt-turned-blog Blogebrity) has chronicled the embarrassing hygienic deficiencies of Google’s top brass, suspicious promotional practices of Google’s founders, and… some other stuff about Google, as I recall. But I kid. It’s a fun blog — Wonkette for the IT department. Or, it was until today.

Sometime over the weekend, Denton dismissed Douglas from the site, implemented a new layout, new typesetting, and apparently a new focus (more money, less sex). Here’s what it looked like yesterday:

Old Valleywag Layout

And what it looks like today:

New Valleywag Layout

Moreover, Denton has installed as interim blogger none other than himself. Which could work — he was a tech journalist prior to being an entrepreneur, and was an early, uh, blogebrity himself (if you remember Glenn Reynolds linking favorably to Denton’s hawkish post-9/11 proclamations, pat yourself on the back).

However, here at Blog P.I. we make no bones about getting a kick out of comment sections that turn on the site’s bloggers, and the reaction to Denton’s first post is truly something to behold. Some of the better responses:

Come on. Valleywag can spill the beans on every other “change in employment,” but you try to pass this crap off when Nick Douglas leaves? What gives. You say, “letting him go” which typically means fired. You can do better than that.

Funny, the design was one of the few in the Gawker empire that I liked. Now I’m not sure which of your generic, overlapping sites I’m on. I guess I’ll just have to deal.

How many photoshop filters had to throw up before you got that logo treatment? It may be the single most ugly thing I have ever seen in my life, and I just saw the “Naked Jen” flickr set from Dave Winer.

Oh, and IBM just called from 1955, they want their Courier font back.

The new site design sucks balls. As for Nick leaving, it COULD be a breath of fresh air (I grew tired of reading The Michael Arrington and Jason Calcanis Show), but you’re already on thin ice due to the less than forthcoming nature of the announcement.

well, it was a nice ride. ass design + letting go of your most valuable asset + renewed focus on crap people care even less about = removal from my daily web surfing routine. best of luck to both of you Nicks!

Before Spiers stopped talking to me, she once offered advice about the prospect of working for Denton or Calacanis: (I’m paraphrasing here) “It’s the old lesser of two evils thing, but at least with Jason you’re gonna get someone who is completely honest and won’t stab you in the back.”

I think this post needs more context. Who is this Nick Denton person and why should we care?

And elsewhere, tech bloggers are none too pleased, either. Here’s Zooomr evangelist Thomas Hawk:

Denton refuses to spill the beans. Was Douglas fired? Did he quit? Douglas is a pretty young guy so I doubt the old “he’s taking time off to spend more time with his family,” line works. Denton should know better than to offer us a weak, “Nick Douglas, the kid we plucked from college to launch Valleywag, will be a great journalist. And we will look stupid for letting him go.” … So you are saying he was fired? Or was he not fired? Very, very weak for a gossip blog Denton.

Ethernet inventor Richard Bennett looks at it from a different angle:

It’s probably a step closer to relevance, but still has a long way to go. … The editor was some pimply-faced teenager from Pennsylvania who had no clue about Silicon Valley life (and still doesn’t), the mix of stories is too sophomoric and Google-centric, the comment policy is bizarre, and the design was too hard to read. The new design is even worse, using a faint monospaced font, the comment policy remains the same, Denton is the temporary editor, and the story mix remains to be demonstrated.

And he’s not alone — Matthew Ingram updated a critical post to praise Denton’s later report on mega-sites Fark and Digg ditching John Battelle’s Federated Media for a new ad network run by Maxim (yes, that Maxim). It’s a new direction, for sure. Whereas Gawker, Defamer and Deadspin reign as the definitive gossip sites for NYC media, Hollywood and professional sports respectively, Valleywag wouldn’t be considered a rival to, say, frequent Douglas target Michael Arrington of the hugely popular TechCrunch. It looks like Denton wishes to compete with Arrington, rather than merely antagonize him. And Denton certainly has the connections to make that work. But Douglas’ Valleywag was something different. Denton’s Valleywag, not so much.

Meanwhile, lit fic crit Edward Champion keeps things short and sour:

Nick Douglas has apparently been shitcanned from Valleywag and all I got was this crummy T-shirt (and one of the worst blog designs I think I’ve ever seen).

As I always say about this time: Tough crowd. But that’s the blogosphere for you, and if anyone’s developed an epidermal layer strong enough to withstand this onslaught, it’s Denton. And if there’s anything serious to be said here, it’s that the blogosphere expects accountability and openness from its counterparts in cyberspace as well as its subjects/targets in meatspace. That’s one thing you would think Nick Denton would have figured out by now.

P.S. For what it’s worth (and I realize it may not be much) I was among the first to notice Blogebrity when the site launched as a preview of an alleged blog equivalent of People Magazine speculate about what it was way back when it launched in May 2005. I would also add that I was among the first to report the truth — it was an entrant in the first Contagious Media contest — although I believe I was the only political blogger to pay it any attention at all. History repeats itself.

Update: Via 10 Zen Monkeys, I learn that I didn’t read far down enough to find the actual best comments to Denton’s first post:

JasonCalacanis: Someone tell little Nicky that I have a job for him running NickDenton.net: all Denton all the time.

NickDouglas: Jason, calling me “little Nicky” is an AWESOME way to make me consider a professional relationship with you.

If there’s an Adam Sandler joke to be made here, I don’t know what it is.

Second Update: Wisely, Valleywag has dropped the use of Courier in the regular copy.

And again via 10 Zen Monkeys, the truth comes out: Douglas was indeed fired, apparently for trying to lure News Corp. (!) into suing Nick Denton. Can’t say that sounds unreasonable.

But as I added to the comments at the end of the linked post, I recall when Denton launched Defamer in early 2004, Mickey Kaus quipped:

Why not go all the way and call it Defendant!

Can’t say that doesn’t sound like Denton’s ethos caught up with him.

Martin’s First Thesis

Published by William Beutler on November 13, 2006 in Hotline, Journalist Bloggers and MSM vs. Blogs. Closed

Starting today as political reporter for National Review’s The Corner is my erstwhile Hotline colleague and freelancing maniac Jonathan Martin, who got off to a running start this afternoon with a detailed report on the GOP minority leader’s race. If there’s anything wrong with the post, it’s only that it sets a high bar for future reporting:

Political Washington today is focused on three fronts. On one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Topic A remains Iraq, and the forthcoming Baker report and Gates hearings. Up the Hill, members return to the Capitol today for a lame-duck session that will be dominated this week by leadership contests. Everywhere else, the focus is on the above and the fast-developing ‘08 road to the White House news (Vilsack in, Feingold out, McCain putting his first toes in the water). Because I’ve got a weakness for Hill leadership contests, I’ll start there with the House Minority Leader race.

First off, all these contests differ from the last one we saw (for Majority Leader in January) in that the candidates aren’t, at least for now, circulating names of supporters. That will probably come as good news to those of you who don’t care to follow the preference of every obscure rank-and-file member, but is sad for those of us who like to keep score at home.

He’s a good writer and great reporter, not to mention a bit of a throwback — he likes to start off his day with an actual broadsheet newspaper. And I hope Jonathan will forgive me for revealing his darkest blogging secret: In spite of his new job, the truth is he was no fan of the blogosphere until the 2005 Virginia governor’s race, when he first discovered that there were some blogs he liked — and quickly realized that blogs were essential for keeping score at home. And now, the conversion is complete.

Where The Campaign Blog Ends

Published by William Beutler on November 10, 2006 in Blog Consultants, Blogging Officials, Campaigns, Democrats, George Allen, Lamont v. Lieberman, Midterms '06 and Republicans. 3 Comments

A few days ago we counted up the dollars spent by federal campaigns and earned by their respective bloggers/new media consultants — so for this post, following the final concession/victory speeches of the campaign (George Allen and Jim Webb respectively), I thought it would be interesting to run through snapshots of the campaign blogs covered then. The results are telling.

First up, Allen’s late-starting and now late official blog, Allen HQ, written by Jon Henke. Though Allen conceded yesterday afternoon, his campaign blog is still under the impression that V must be GOT:

George Allen Campaign Blog

Joe Lieberman’s victory was apparent on election night itself, and his campaign blog reflected the fact:

Joe Lieberman Campaign Blog A

But when you click through…

Joe Lieberman Campaign Blog B

Huh? That’s it? (Actually, this isn’t a big surprise — Olly pointed out several weeks ago that Lieberman’s blog was saddled with that line imploring one to “READ THE FULL BLOG POST” regardless of whether there was more to read or not (Note: These screen shots were taken last evening; the site is now kaput)).

And how about his challenger, the August primary victor, Ned Lamont?

Ned Lamont Campaign Blog

It would seem Lamont’s contract with blog consultant Tim Tagaris ran longer than Allen’s with Jon Henke.

Bob Casey was a big winner — maybe the first-declared Democratic pickup, and his bloggers have kept it up since then, expanding its focus to congratulate other candidates:

Bob Casey Campaign Blog

Too bad the layout is a snore.

Bill Frist may or may not still be running for president, but his blog appears to be still active:

Bill Frist Official Blog

Too bad nothing on the blog he sponsors is necessarily reflective of Frist’s actual opinions. [Whoops. Definitely our bad. See the comments. So, uh, too bad there's no actual blog on the main page?]

James Webb’s campaign blog looks as if it might continue on:

James Webb Campaign Blog

But like Casey’s blog, and Webb and Casey both, it’s a tad on the boring side.

Same goes for newly elected Montana Sen. Jon Tester, Webb’s sort-of-lookalike:

Jon Tester Campaign Blog

Larry Grant did not win his campaign to represent Idaho’s first district:

Larry Grant Campaign Blog

Grant’s campaign was actually more successful than one might expect, winning 45% in very conservative ID 01. Add points for hosting the official campaign blog on Typepad — very bloggy. Subtract points for pretending the official campaign blog was the work of the “grassroots” — not very bloggy.

Mike Bouchard failed to unseat Sen. Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, but he did succeed in posting one final message to his official blog:

Mike Bouchard Campaign Blog

So did outgoing Sen. Rick Santorum:

Rick Santorum Campaign Blog

That underlined text? Not links, just emphasis — a staple of this particular campaign site, and no others on this list. Makes you wonder if the blog was written by the same people responsible for his fundraising letters.

Rep. Mark Kennedy lost his Senate bid to Senator-elect Amy Klobuchar, which is why the headline on his latest post will make you do a double-take:

Mark Kennedy Campaign Blog

Note the date and content; Kennedy’s is one of several campaign blogs that seem to have been abandoned prior to the election. But by more than a month? Pathetic.

Another pre-election abandonment, perhaps more surprisingly, was successful Senator-reelect Bob Menendez:

Bob Menendez Campaign Blog

Before Halloween? Not quite pathetic; merely lame.

Ditto re-elected Rep. Jan Schakowsky:

Jan Schakowsky Campaign Blog

Though SchaBLOGsky is a pretty good title, almost as cheesily amusing as Jim Webb’s “WebbLog.”

At least Ohio Gov-elect Ted Strickland managed to keep his staffers blogging into November:

Ted Strickland Campaign Blog

Nice use of Frappr and LiveJournal, too.

And Debbie Stabenow, like Allen, managed to get through to election day — but no further:

Debbie Stabenow Campaign Blog

I submit that failure to post a thank-you note after the campaign’s conclusion is a passive statement of a lack of commitment to engaging the political blogosphere. Maybe most people will never notice, but it can’t leave a good impression on those who do.

Worse, though, is the statement made by the current state of the blog promoting failed House candidate Bill Winter in Colorado:

Bill Winter Campaign Blog

404? Well, at least it’s fitting.

Exit Music For A Campaign

Published by William Beutler on November 7, 2006 in Democrats, Election Night, Meatspace, Midterms '06, National Politics and Online Fundraising. 1 Comment

It is only a matter of minutes now before the polls close and BIog P.I. departs for an evening of electoral victory/defeat partying, letting people with a stake in the day’s events this buy our drinks. In the meantime, here are some thoughts before the election returns are returned…

Today’s Wall Street Journal could have coined it the Wonkette Rule:

Two-by-two, polling specialists from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and the Associated Press will go into rooms in New York and Washington shortly before noon Tuesday. Their cellphones and BlackBerrys will be confiscated; proctors will monitor the doors; and for the next five hours, these experts will pore over exit-poll data from across the country.

If all goes well, only when they emerge from their cloisters will the legions of ravenous political bloggers have any chance of getting their hands on the earliest indication of which party will end up controlling Congress.

The sidebar does, however, single out Nick Denton’s Beltway gossip sheet in a sidebar (though in 2004 Slate’s Jack Shafer joined Wonkette’s Ana Marie Cox in bravely/shamefully running those numbers early):

WSJ pins early exit poll blame on Wonkette

That’s right, it’s all the bloggers’ fault — and not the reporters who leaked the information to them, nor the reporters who leaked the information to themselves for publishing on the Internet.

These things we know: Exit polls are far from authoritative, and one shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on them. However, there are ways of making that point without being as deliciously hubristic as RNC Research Department:

In 2000, Exit Polling Malfunctioned And Incorrectly Projecting [sic] Vice President Al Gore As The Winner Of The Crucial Battleground State Of Florida.

Well, Yes, And Then Some Other Stuff Happened, Too.

Also of some interest — what Danny Glover did for political blogger/consultants last week, today he does for political blogger/donors. Earlier in the week I extrapolated from his numbers (in some cases perhaps a bit too far) to create charts based on them. Today, why don’t I rank his latest findings in order, from those donating the most to those donating the least? Why not indeed:


Blogger Breakout Total
John Hinderaker, Power Line Mark Kennedy ($2,400); Michelle Bachmann ($2,100) $4,500
Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos Jim Webb ($1,825); Jon Tester ($1,300); Ciro Rodriguez ($250) $3,375
Hugh Hewitt, TownHall.com Jon Kyl ($2,000); Rick Santorum ($1,000) $3,000
Duncan Black, Atrios Vote Vets ($250); Lois Murphy ($200); Patrick Murphy ($200) $650
Matt Stoller, MyDD Ned Lamont $500
Chris Bowers, MyDD Ned Lamont $250
Stirling Newberry, various Ned Lamont $250

All numbers from Glover’s FEC searches, and as I am guessing he did not run every known political blogger’s name through the system, the list is surely incomplete. But would you have pegged Kos to have donated more than Hewitt? I’m pretty sure I would not.

The next time Blog P.I. is updated, the Washington political world will be turned upside down. Or possibly not. But if I had to wager — and I have made my non-wagering predictions elsewhere —  things are more likely than not to end up sideways.

The Trouble With Harry

Published by William Beutler on November 7, 2006 in Blogging Officials, Comment Sections, Lamont v. Lieberman and Netroots. 9 Comments

Don’t look now — wait, actually you really should — but Harry Reid’s visit to Daily Kos is going anything but swimmingly, even if it does happen to be raining in the District today. Reid’s posting, at the time of this writing the site’s top-ranked diary, all begins innocuously enough, with the Senate Majority Leader kissing the blogosphere’s ring:

YearlyKos seems so long ago doesn’t it?

Yet it was only five months ago when I asked you for three things:

1.    Call Republicans and their friends in the media on their crass and hypocritical political games
2.    Make it clear where Democrats stand
3.    Never give up

Thank you for doing all of this and more. Because of you, no attack went unanswered. Because of you no lie avoided the truth. Because of you no distortion became a distraction to Democrats.

If the sheer obsequiousness of the post doesn’t make you ill, consider this YouTube video, shot exclusively for the diary:

If there’s anything noteworthy about the content of Reid’s post, it’s that Daily Kos diarists are not allowed to post YouTube videos, and Kos has in the past made a point of not giving politicians special treatment, yet here Reid has somehow obtained permission to post this video in his first-ever diary at Daily Kos. Hmm.

But the fun doesn’t really start until you get into the comments. You don’t have to get very far, either, before you see:

Harry Reid challenged over his non-support of Ned Lamont at Daily Kos

Tough crowd. To be fair, a good number of Kossacks — perhaps even a majority — responded favorably, many even cheered him on (perhaps opening themselves to accusations of obsequiescence) or defended Reid against his detractors. And boy, does he have detractors:

The cult of personality around Harry “Keeping the Powder Dry in Perpetuity” Reid is truly mystifying. No one has betrayed Democratic principles more, yet Kossacks act like he’s Paul Fucking Wellstone.

Not to mention:

And what, Harry, did you do for Dems in CT?

Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.

Remember that the next time to put your hand out for anything from CT Dems.

Hope you and Joe and Bill and Hill and Chuck and Barack and Harold enjoy each other’s company.  Yuck!

And:

we could have unified around a REAL Democrat…NED LAMONT but i think you and others in DC didnt have enough faith is us to deliver the majority

for me THAT is one of the real shames of this election…..that we worked so damn hard to take back control of congress and the people who will benefit from our hard work didnt trust us enough to back our choices for candidates…or our belief in Howard Deans 50 state strategy.

And:

If Reid had done what he had to do he would have brought the full weight of the DC Dem establishment to support the rightful Dem nominee.  Not supporting Lamont is a failed strategy. I don’t give a rats ass about maintaining a relationship with Lieberman because even if nominally he sticks with the Dems, he is still going to stick it TO the Dems when it comes to his positions and votes.

Bullshit that supporting Lamont would not have made a huge impact on Lamont’s chances for today.

That said, Lamont WILL win today.

This, from the “reality-based community”? Credit goes to certain Kossacks, like Big Tent Democrat and cedubose, for trying to keep the peace. And the best line goes to lotlizard:

Ladies, please! Don’t squeeze the Chairman.

But by then, the thread had already been wrecked. And here’s the thing: Joe Lieberman is going to win today, and he’s going to be more powerful than ever before. Lamont will be gone, but Reid will still be the Democrats’ leader. And if this is how his ostensible allies will receive him, why bother?

This isn’t politics. In fact, you could say it’s the opposite: It’s impolitic, and it disregards the fact that, when they’re not out making nice to their various constituencies, politicians tend to hold grudges — more so than most people, even.

At this rate, watching the netroots come to terms with the reality of their team handling the responsibilities of political power promises to provide a great deal of inexpensive entertainment.