Don’t look now, but Cynthia McKinney — who having been bounced from Congress in 2002 is facing the very real prospect of becoming an ex-member once again — has herself a campaign blog. More than a few public officials have tried their hand at blogging over the past few years, and with a few exceptions, most probably would be better off if they hadn’t. It’s not that they shouldn’t blog, it’s that they should only do it if they’re willing to do it right. I’ve seen many an inept campaign blog in my day, but Rep. McKinney sets a whole new standard.
For example: Although this particular page on her official campaign site does bill itself as a “blog,” and indeed has permalinks, it fails one particular test of blogginess that frankly, I can’t recall ever having seen failed before: The posts are in chronological, not reverse-chronological order.
In other words, the first thing you see when the page loads is an entry from April 20. At the bottom of the page is the latest post, on July 20. You could be forgiven for thinking the site had been abandoned, but no, if you scroll down from the top, the next post is June 17. And that one’s a doozy, responding to the hullabaloo over McKinney’s confrontation with the Capitol police earlier this year:
The good ol’ boy cracker-crats of the Republican party are having themselves a regular hootenanny over allegations that congresswoman Cynthia McKinney landed a punch on a security guard at the Capitol.
To be fair, that post appears to have been authored by a caucasian, although if black-on-black racism is a problem, then white-on-white racism cannot be discounted entirely. The self-described “white boy” is Greg Palast, a journalist whose investigations could be called controversial at best. Perhaps Palast is behind the campaign’s primary day efforts to play on her constituents’ fears about voting machine manufacturer Diebold’s rumored pro-Republican programming tendencies.
But it’s worth asking: If Diebold was certain that ousting McKinney is a good idea — and some prominent Atlanta conservatives want her to stay — then why not install DeKalb Co. Commish Hank Johnson without the trouble of a runoff?
And if you head to the most recent entry of McKinney’s pseudo-blog, she prepares her supporters for the primary fight ahead:
I will be pitted against a mostly unknown and unproven opponent, who will nonetheless have the unanimous backing of big national media and national money. The media and money behind my opponent will do their utmost to polarize the election along racial and party lines.
Indeed, Rep. McKinney would never tolerate, let alone disseminate or seek to gain from, racial or partisan polarization. Right?
