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June 14, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
The Buying Of The Democratic Blogosphere
Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner threw an expensive party for the folks at YearlyKos over the weekend. Micah Sifry of Personal Democracy Forum questioned whether that was a smart move by Warner, a potential presidential candidate in 2008. Dave Johnson of Seeing the Forest thinks it was a "brilliant" marketing strategy.
"Some people wonder if it reflects poorly on his judgment, that he lavishly throws money around," Johnson wrote. "I think this may have been a very effective use of marketing dollars and a very sharp strategic move.
"Think about it this way: If Gov. Warner has now established himself in the front of the pack, and grabbed onto a great big piece of the mindshare of the blogosphere, for only $70,000 (or whatever it cost), then good for him. It shows he knows how to reach the audiences he needs to reach, when he needs to reach them."
Johnson also said the blogosphere will benefit from Warner's attention. "[H]e validated the importance of the emerging blogosphere to the American political process," Johnson said. "He lent his own credibility to the blogosphere."
UPDATE: Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, the inspiration behind YearlyKos, responded to complaints about Warner's spending at the conference. Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, who now works for Warner at Forward Together, are the co-authors of the book "Crashing The Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics."
John Aravosis of Americablog was a bit defensive about the criticism, too.
UPDATE II: Former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox shared her thoughts on Warner's outreach to blogs, as well as on bloggers' criticism of the media and other topics, in Time magazine.
A contributor at The Huffington Post voiced his fears that "many in this sector of the liberal blogosphere can be bought off by a politician showing a little interest and stroking their outsider egos."
And Matthew Yglesias at TPMCafe asks of Warner: "But where's the beef?" (The policy kind, that is, not the bovine kind that may have been part of Warner's lavish spread at YearlyKos.)
Posted by Danny | 12:22 PM
