Comments on: The Right and Left on Twitter, Cont.

By: Didier Grossemy

Didier Grossemy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:50:07 +0000

Digital is no longer the "under dog" of the marketing world, campaigns and strategies are now built around digital media with digital media becoming the centre piece of any activity.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:45:49 +0000

I doubt I would seriously be considered an insider even now, but you seem to be unwilling to see what I am writing in plain text: We weren't consultants, we weren't party chairmen and women. We were regular people who decided to engage in this thing.

So far on Twitter and in the blogosphere that isn't the case with the right.

By: William Beutler

William Beutler — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:57:44 +0000

As to the first point, so at one time you were a political outsider but now you are an insider — just like most everyone in politics. As to the second point, you’re not being specific so I suspect you don’t have one.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:10:33 +0000

I responded to you over on my blog but I wasn't working at Media Matters when I started blogging (the liberal blogosphere started up in 2000-2001, MM didn't exist until 2004). I had never even had anything to do with politics. And the same is true for most of the liberal blogosphere.

And then you keep giving me counterexamples that prove my point: Republican political consultants and old hands organizing on Twitter, yet its supposedly grassroots.

By: William Beutler

William Beutler — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:55:56 +0000

Oliver, you’ll have to forgive me for thinking there is no one whom you would accept as being honest-to-goodness grassroots. I’m sure you know quite well that TCOT is the creation of N.Z. Bear, he of the old Truth Laid Bear and PorkBusters and you name it, who is based in California. A number of these campaigns and much of the tea party organization was done by Eric Odom, who works for the Sam Adams Alliance in Chicago. And if you think the red-haired lady from a state party in the Northwest is just another member of the good ol’ boys’ club, then it really wouldn’t matter if you were arguing in good faith or not. Your talking points are set. (Myself, I’ve got an open mind about what will happen over the course of the next few years.) And of course, I am sure the irony that you work for a left-wing think tank receiving funds from none other than George Soros is lost on no one.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:15:57 +0000

So your argument that Twitter is a grassroots con tool is - lemme get this straight - a radio host, a radio show producer, PR people, consultants, and a GOP state party employee? Look, maybe you guys will make magical politics ponies on Twitter, but my guess is the way there is not by a bunch of consultants twittering "#tcot" every 5 minutes. I know you guys really want to have one of these things be yours after the left has had so much success with blogs, but history shows that its probably not going to be consultants leading the charge. When the right won the radio it was guys like Limbaugh, radio people with a knack for telling a story (no matter how untrue) that broke through.

Keith Olbermann isn't a great twitterer? I'll concede that. But at the same time he's doing a liberal cable news shows that conservatives think is so unworthy of comment they write about it almost every day.

For myself, ill use hashtags if theyre short like tcot and not monstrosities like topprog. Its 140 characters for chrissake.

By: Sweet Jesus Not This Bull Again | Oliver Willis

Sweet Jesus Not This Bull Again | Oliver Willis — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:07:27 +0000

[...] goes as well for the Twitter triumphalists like Patrick Ruffini and William Beutler. History may prove me wrong, but I highly doubt any medium thrives at a grassroots level when its [...]

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:03:27 +0000

tcot still seems to be a poor case for the power of twitter: an echo chamber of back patting and bama-bashing where not even talking points can survive intact, instead having to be whittled down into what amount to “dey took ur jobs!”-level grunts. Putting the call out for immediate events and causes and then spreading the word far and wide is precisely what twitter seems to excel at, and in that sense the tea parties seem too telegraphed and long-in-the-planning to really fulfill that potential.

Which is not to say that anyone on the left should scoff at twitter. If I had to bet, I would say that, barring burnout or yet another next big thing coming along and supplanting it, it’s going to become impossible to ignore within a couple of months to a year when things like mobile payments go fully live and legal, and donating small amounts to to candidates and causes becomes faster, simpler, and even more potentially viral than it is with more conventional online calls for moola.