Somehow, I don't see federal office-seekers taking the time to write daily blogs anytime soon, not until some of the old-timers retire at least. Bob Graham, maybe. Dick Durbin, probably not. I could see staffers from the campaign blogging, but the reason I read Atrios or Daily Kos is that they have quick tongues (keyboards), and campaign offices are notoriously risk-adverse. I don't see campaign blogs as very interesting reads.
Longing for a Blogging Candidate:
Although blogs like Daily Kos have demonstrated some possibilities of the medium, political candidates haven't bought into them, and probably won't anytime soon. By Daniel Terdiman.
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Jay Rosen, another popular blogger, said bloggers who want their medium to have more influence in politics need to find a way to demonstrate to candidates the many benefits of blogging, and try to find a trailblazer to set an example."We should get the highest person we can in 2006," Rosen said, "a politician in office, to understand that if he blogs himself, he'll be able to revolutionize (communication) for his constituents."
While a blog offers the promise of a two-way discussion between bloggers and their visitors, there's no practical way for any individual blogger to interact with more than a few readers. And that would be especially true in the case of a politician blogger, as the number of readers would easily outstrip any possible direct communication.
Biddle, who was not at BloggerCon, thinks much of the barrier to effective blogging by candidates is fear and ignorance of the medium.
"I think candidates are still not aware of the value of them blogging and communicating with people through the internet and creating those kinds of conversations," Biddle said. "The only way it works is when the candidate is confident enough and the campaign is confident enough for them to be transparent. I mean that they're willing to expose themselves to a two-way conversation, and not (just) the message, the message, the message constantly."
Biddle also said he can't imagine many candidates taking the time to blog with any kind of frequency, given the demands on their time. But he doesn't agree with many of the BloggerCon attendees that a candidate's blog must be exclusively his or her voice. Instead, he said it's fine for a campaign to have a regularly updated blog written by someone able to act as a liaison between the community and the candidate, as long as the candidate sometimes participates personally.
"There are times when the readers need to hear from the candidate," said Biddle, "particularly when there are issues (like the Swift Boat attacks on Kerry) that the candidate needs to address."
But while Biddle said he thinks serious candidate blogging needs to begin at the top -- with presidential or federal-level candidates -- others disagree.
"I don't think it's going to happen from this level down," said Edward Cone, the moderator of a BloggerCon discussion on elections, and the author of EdCone.com. "It's going to be from the ground up, not some big-name person deciding to do it."
