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Dueling Candidate Blogs In Michigan

The battle for the Senate seat in Michigan now will be waged in part in the blogosphere, as both the Democratic and Republican candidates have launched blogs this month. That is as it should be in what top political observers now consider one of the most competitive races of this fall.

I've noted the new blog of Republican Mike Bouchard a couple of times this month. But the last time I checked earlier this month, Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow did not yet have a blog.

Now she does. Laura Packard, Stabenow's Internet communications director, pointed me to the blog this afternoon. It has been online since Sept. 12.

If you want to know why all candidates (and especially those in competitive races) should have blogs, just look at what has transpired in Virginia over the past two days, where Republican Sen. George Allen and Democrat James Webb are doing battle.

Over the past couple of months, the charge that Allen is a racist, or at least was in earlier years, has taken firm root in the Democratic blogosphere. On Sunday, Salon fueled that fire with a story that said Allen was a racist in his college days. The article quoted one former football teammate of Allen's on the record and two others off the record.

Democratic blogs immediately called attention to the story. But this time, unlike as happened in August after a politically costly verbal gaffe by Allen, the Allen campaign's own blog answered with a rapid response -- one that featured the contrary views of three other former Allen teammates, and they spoke on the record.

"As journalists accusing Allen of something pretty heinous less than two months before an election," Mary Katherine Ham added at Townhall, "the Salon gang really should have let these guys speak more extensively in the article, even if they wanted to bury it beneath the more newsworthy storyline about Allen being a racist."

Posted by Danny | 01:35 PM

Comments

One of the most competitive races this fall? Are you kidding or what? Stabenow consistently in the low to mid fifties, no poll ever showing Bouchard ahead.
There aint no real race here.

Tano | 09.25.06 04:47 PM

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