We may have a
dog blogging, but at least he is grounded in reality. That's as opposed to Join Arnold's Mike
Murphy and Todd "I pick up the trash" Harris, who seems to have developed a penchant for inventing politically expeditious fake schedules for kindergarten teachers.
This weekend, the SacBee implied that it was more important that campaign bloggers be a part of high level strategy sessions than actually being credible authors in the medium. Any quick glance at the two sites on either side of this battle will give you a little insight into who treats this growing audience with respect, and who thinks it's just an amusing place to throw sand.
They started off weekly -with typical right-wing attacks on the main stream press (though you have to give them props for attempting moblogging by sending from their Blackberrys). It quickly devolved in to weird comments about "reform elves", Dr. Evil, and People Magazine celebrity worship, as well as insightful policy statements like "Wow, blogging is fun." Are you kidding me?!
There is a reason why right-wing blogs are losing ground to progressive sites and that is the ability to participate in the discussion. People like Murphy assume that they are the only ones capable of talking politics. Their whole machine is predicated on a top down strategy. Why would they want a two way communication with their supporters if they can just issue orders to the masses? The Join Arnold blog is the same way. Sure you can give feedback about a post, you just have to send an email off into the campaign ether. I am sure they will get right back to you.
You know that they're afraid. They're afraid that their arguments can't hold up to real scrutiny. They don't want to hear what their supporters have to hear, because they are afraid that they will reveal their true intention- intentions that have nothing to do with education or electoral reform.
Governor, I dare you to open up your site to comments. Take your 33% approval out for a ride. I dare your staff to become real bloggers, and beat us with better arguments - not by throwing sand. I dare you.