Wanted - A Presidential Candidate That Blogs

I picked up the NY Post the other day (yes I read The Post sometimes) and saw an article that talked about Hillary's "conversation with america" the other night. It was a live chat that featured responses from filtered questions that were emailed in. That's 1995 Hillary. 2007 is a one to one relationship with the voters. You can't do that sitting behind a computer and answering filtered emails.

I just checked the exploratory committee websites of Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain, and Romney. A few have blogs (or so they call them). Not one of them actually write any posts.

Why? Because they are too busy? Probably. But I can tell you that it doesn't take that long to bang out a post. I did this one in two minutes.

I want to see a candidate really blog this election cycle. Maybe there is one already. If so, let me know who it is. I want to read it. I don't care what political party they are in. That will get my attention.

Comments

[Jamie]

Most of those you mentioned write diaries at Dkos and write blogs occasionally at huffpost.

http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:52

the above is J Kerry's user ID. I honestly have no idea if they write it themselves or staffers. I know it's not exactly what your looking for.

[just some guy]

I can tell you that it doesn't take that long to bang out a post. I did this one in two minutes.

It shows -- not in a bad way, mind you, although on some blogs it does show in a bad way. Your entry was a simple straightforward appeal. It isn't controversial, unless someone is looking for a really lame fight.

Blogs would be interesting, but the nature of politics is such that each entry will likely be written by a professional writer. Each position taken in the posting will be scrutinized and vetted. And there will be lots of wiggle room so that the politician can slip through the clutch of controversy. At least, this will be true for the winning candidate.

The candidate who pours forth real positions in stream of consciousness truthfulness will be savaged by professional respondents with Rovian efficiency.

[AlFromChicago]

Fred -

Right on. What they should also be willing to do is "call in" for podcasts if writing something is just too much -- and certainly they should have a staffer doing video blogs of themselves.

I also think 2008 is the year of user-generated Political content -- imagine these candidates where you can see video blurbs of their various supporters -- so a place on Hillary's page for Illinoisians for Clinton and you click there and can sort various supporters video clips. So not just one on one -- but many to many.

We'll see how aggressive people get -- but I think the smart ones will go viral.

In the meantime you can check Hillary and the rest over at BuzzTracker: www.buzztracker.com/category/hillary_clinton, www.buzztracker.com/category/barack_obama, etc.

--Alan

[Dave]

[sarcasm]You realize of course that a candidate has to be literate to be able to post to a blog (without the aid of a ghost writer and a legal team to keep him/her out of trouble). Maybe that is what you are looking for. I concur. I just don't believe we will ever see a candidate that has the skill set to be able to actually write in a coherent fashion that is also interested in being president. The two requirements seem to be orthogonal.[/sarcasm]

[Cliff]

Recently a member of the Canadian Parliment, Garth Turner, was removed from his party because of this blog. There is article on it here http://www.propr.ca/index.php/2006/government-blogging-and-garth-turner/

[Jamie]

In a touch of irony, Chris Dodd is live blogging at firedoglake as I write this.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/23/blue-america-a-chat-with-senator-chris-dodd/

[kid mercury]

not in the states, but in britain david cameron has a very open site, IMO a very interesting cultural indicator. cameron's site is interesting because in a free for all like that the most passionate win -- and the most passionate are typically the most extreme.

of course, what web 2 will really expose politically is that a lot of these people dont want to be that open. they're afraid of it.

[Tom Labus]

Warren Beatty In "Bulworth".

Politicians by their nature are unable to seek (speak) the truth.

[Tom Kirkham]

They are too busy with being politicians to post. It requires reflective, lucid thought that takes up far more time than simply listening to staff members. Will not happen for at least another election cycle. And even if it does, the one that does it first will polarize himself too much against one that takes a vague political position with the current media.
Sorry to be cynical, but I'm not sure if even the vast majority of the population is even ready to select a candidate based upon their true thoughts - unless their photo looks really good.

[Gregg Spiridellis]

Worse than the fact that they don't blog is the blatant old-school media techniques they employ to try and manipulate their audience... Hillary's announcement video was about as bad as is gets. I wrote a post about it in my blog...

http://spiridellis.typepad.com/jibjabbin/2007/01/so_new_media_so.html

[Dustin]

I have always wished that all the elected officals would do this. It would be nice for the to give a, say, weekly update of what they are working on, what they voted for/didn't vote for, and anything they would like to talk about.

This would make it easier to be an educated voted, which can be pretty hard from time to time.

[Dave Schappell]

I predict that John Edwards will be the first to embrace it -- at Chris Pirillo's Gnomedex last year the audience suggested that he bring along a blogger on the campaign trail and allow them full access. I'd think that would provide much more honest (and frequent) coverage, and still allow frequent posts directly from the candidate.

[daryn]

I was at Gnomedex in Seattle last year when John Edwards gave that speech. He definitely did a very impressive job of relating to the geek audience, and making us feel like we were really having an impact on educating him about the power of technology.

What will become of it? I don't know...

Here's Richard MacManus' live-blogging of the event:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=226

[Stephen L. McKay]

Fred,

I agree whole heartedly, but you are talking about changing what amounts to an “Old Boy” approach to the political game. Most of the advisors these people hire would have a true conniption fit if their employer suggested such a thing. They would moan and groan, and put up a hundred reasons why such raw exposure to the public would never work, yet these are some of the same people who took John Kerry to a Sport Mart, bought him a hunting suit and a shotgun, and forgot to cut the tags off of the suit. I hate hunting anyway, but that’s beside the point, it‘s who they were trying to appeal to, and when you try so hard to orchestrate and create an image that is not real, you will eventually be uncovered.

I find these advisors are much like the major media execs were a decade ago. They thought the internet was some sort of passing fad. These things will change over time, in the political arena as well, but some of it will only come about when we as a society demand it. I have commented along these lines before. We have more abilities to communicate our thoughts, concerns, and beliefs, now than ever before, and we need to use them, for more than a music download (no offence. I like your taste in music)!

[apseek]

When Bayh was running for President (he dropped out almost a month ago), he posted messages frequently through his Facebook account. Sure, toward the end of his run, most of his posts seemed to be by staffers; however, many posts early on and through the middle of his campaign seemed to be from him.This is the only example I can think of a Presidential candidate blogging.

Who knows? The next US President might have a daily/weekly blog(probably contributed to by staffers)in addition to a weekly radio address.. On a separate note, I know the President of Iran has a blog, but it lacks substance--just incessant rambling.

[Rick]

Show me a Presidential candidate with a blog and I'll show you a team of ghost writers.

[carl rahn griffith]

see how it develops, i guess it's a start:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/firstpost/?sc=8

still, she can always call al g (not ali g!) over for blogging advice - i mean, al 'invented' the internet, didn't he? ;-)

over in blighty we only have one politician with a blog of any merit, that great polymath and eccentric, mr boris johnson:

http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/blog_news/

[OffBeatMammal]

and of course, one elected, the blog and its promises will disappear in a futile attempt to rewrite the past!
And the people will forgive anyway

[shiva]

i agree with Fred's sentiment, and would love to see this come to pass as well. however, as one of the earlier commentors pointed out, a politician's web content would be difficult to differentiate... theres quite a blurry line between a blog post and another few minutes on his or her soapbox. Obama's senate site for example has a big pile of podcasts, which is cool and i look forward to perusing, but i imagine simply a compilation of speeches (http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/) rather than intimate, reflective monologues.

it's a start though, right?

i guess our demographic of blog readers would know it when we see it whether what was occuring was genuine blogging or thinly veiled marketing, even if it would be difficult to unambiguously identify differentiating criteria.

[Laura]

FWIW, Barack Obama has a podcast: http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/

[cameron]

Check out Tom Vilsack's site:
tomvilsack08.com

he has a video blog that seems rather authentic -- more raw than the typical polished candidate video.

[Alex Iskold]

She heard you:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/firstpost/?sc=1

[ming666]

i really could care less if they blog or not. i don't care to know whether its boxers or briefs. your running for freaking president of the united states. a country of over 300million, which, like it or not sets the tone and tempo (today) on all things financial, military & cultural in the world today. i am not so self-possesed that i have to be able be made to "feel" that you understand my pain or can relate to me as a "geek", "technologist", or whaterver i call myself these days. please, whoever you are - spend your time dong your homework. develop policy proposals not soundbites. tell me first what you want to do, why it is important and what you believe will be the outcome. getting to "know"each other is secondary. if you can dash off a blog entry or record a podcast thats great, but take care of the important stuff first.

[Farhan Lalji]

Ming666 - Funny I thought engaging the people who voted for you and explaining why you do the things you do would be just as important as the actual doing of stuff. It also gives you a closer connection to the way the people you represent are thinking and feel about the policies you put in place. Self-possessed you say, effective communicator and truly democratic I say.

[ming666]

sorry, i seem to have struck a nerve. i do believe the voting public is for the most part self-possesed infants who would rather hear a soundbite or a pr response via a blog than listen to a potential political leader explain a comlex issue with context and then put a solution to it. and then defend it. over and over and over. funny i thought that since this is a vc blog (and a damn good one at that!) that my curmudgeonly observation might be clear. as vc's and entrepreneur's we spend our lives pitching or being pitched to. communicating a problem, idea, solution and projected outcome. its a tough, honest system but its outcome is efficient and most of the time good. if blogging is part of that than let me climb down and say ok i am sorry for being over the top. but i would never consider not voting for someone because he or she did not have a blog. its a nice to have and nothing more.