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Blog Rivals Snipe At Each Other Over New Media

Democratic bloggers love to claim superiority over their Republican counterparts when it comes to online expertise, and Republican bloggers generally agree that their rivals have the edge in the politics and technology sphere. But GOP e-politics expert Patrick Ruffini apparently wasn't in the mood for a condescending lecture from netroots expert Chris Bowers yesterday.

In a post headlined "More Massive Bellyflops From The Republican Netroots," Bowers mocked Republicans for their "truly and utterly pathetic" lack of online creativity. His evidence: They submitted only a handful of videos for a contest run by the National Republican Congressional Committee to call attention to the perceived failures of a Democratic-led Congress.

"I'm not really sure why Republican activists have apparently no ability to engage in self-starting activism of this nature," Bowers said. "... [T]his complete lack of creativity and self-directed content production stuns even me. Republicans are clearly facing a massive creativity gap at the grassroots level, one that cannot be easily explained away. ... Republicans seem to have created an army of zombies that can't think for themselves."

Ruffini's retort noted that another video contest run by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney resulted in more than 100 entries, and the winning video was aired on television. He said it "was far better than anything the Romney media team had produced to date."

Ruffini also blasted the Democratic netroots for their "failure to evolve since 2003" or to change views about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom many liberal bloggers oppose. "When Barack Obama, your best hope for defeating Hillary Clinton, feels free to flagrantly blow you off, what does that say for the vaunted influence of the netroots?" Ruffini wondered.

A blogger at techRepublican, meanwhile, called attention to his submission for the NRCC contest.

And Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation argued that Republicans are "making important strides" in using new media effectively. He mentioned the Leadership Institute's recent "Internet Activist School" for conservative activists, amateur and professional bloggers, nonprofits, communications professionals, candidates, and campaign staff as an example.

Here are more blog bits to digest:
-- Zephyr Teachout, who helped craft online strategy for 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, says the job of online strategist just changed to focus on non-supporters and skeptics rather than engaging supporters and raising money.

But don't tell Chris Maiorana, the Web guru for 2008 GOP candidate Mike Huckabee. He just used Huckabee's blog to conduct a personal fundraiser for Huckabee.

-- As the new research director for Huckabee's team, blogger Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost already is picking fights on behalf of his candidate. His response to a Townhall.com entry prompted fresh criticism of Huckabee (and Carter) from Nachama Soloveichik at The Club For Growth. [CORRECTION: I initiatally attributed the club's response to blogger Andy Roth instead of Soloveichik.]

-- Although nearly two weeks late to the story, The New York Times reports on Democrats' plans to credential more bloggers for their 2008 presidential convention.

-- Maybe it's a good thing that bloggers will be at the conventions because Christopher Beam, who writes the Trailhead blog for Slate, thinks bloggers ask better questions than reporters. Colin Delany shared his thoughts at e.politics. And I agree with Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media that bloggers and reporters should be able to grill candidates as part of the same conference calls.

-- The Dallas Morning News reports on the increasing political power of liberal bloggers in Texas.

-- And just for fun, here's an excerpt from a blog-bashing editorial written by a journalist in the aptly named Superior, Wis.: "[Y]ou can’t help but wonder how readers will differentiate material prepared by traditional media from ramblings posted by every goofball who has an axe to grind. ... Traditional journalists must fight for readers side-by-side with bloggers who belch absolute nonsense."

Posted by Danny | 09:17 AM

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