June 27, 2006

Hillary hires a blogger.

The NYT reports:
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has hired Peter Daou, one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation, to help disseminate her message in a forum that has not always been that hospitable to her....

The Clinton camp is clearly counting on Mr. Daou, who directed blog outreach and online rapid response for Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004, to help improve Mrs. Clinton's image among liberal bloggers, who are fast becoming a constituency in their own right and may thus play a significant role in selecting the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
Nowadays, you have to hire a blogger to fend off the bloggers. This blogging game is playing out nicely.

ADDED: Glenn Reynolds collects links -- including to this post -- on the blogging conspiracy theme. I especially enjoyed BloggingHeads. What makes the Wright/Kaus split screen so fascinating? It's that they don't have that look people get on TV. Especially Kaus. I love the way -- in the beginning -- he's just sticking his tongue halfway out as he's concentrating on Wright's intense discussion of the Kosola time line. Is he intentionally acting like a guy who doesn't know anyone's looking at him or is he just a guy who isn't thinking about how anyone's looking at him?

[Correction made: The word "don't" was missing in the added paragraph. I hope that was obvious. Sorry.]

10 comments:

Bissage said...

This is sort of like that old joke about the lawyer who moves into a small town and almost starves to death until another lawyer moves in and they both become rich.

Ann Althouse said...

Perfect.

Anonymous said...

becoming a constituency in their own right

bloggers a constituency?

Bloggers are citizens that have found a way to voice their concerns. Their demographics and political choices are across the spectrum. The one thing they seem to agree on is that they want their representatives to represent them.

Hernandez analysis is remarkably shallow and buttresses the Times' notion that our leaders are separate and better from the rest of the rabble.

McKreck said...

Jacques Cuze,

I agree that bloggers are not a new constiuency so much as people who have found a way to voice concerns.

I don't think this will work for Hillary: she's not a new face to the internet. She's an old face that lots of bloggers on the left already don't like.

Anonymous said...

he just a guy who isn't thinking

Maxine Weiss said...

".....one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation, to help disseminate her message"

Here's something funny: I just misread that to be...
"dissemble her message" .....or howsabout: "dissimilate her message".

Freudian slips.

Peter Daou is old news. He's been a guest on Kos for years. Furthermore, if the Kossacks couldn't catapult John Kerry into office.....what hope does Peter Daou have of taking Hillary anywhere?

Kerry 2004 proves the blogosphere is not the answer for the Democrats. Their constituents (The Kos crowd)....they couldn't even get the majority of 'em to the polls to vote.

And, supposedly, they all fled to Canada after that.

If not. What's changed? What's going to be different this time around?

Peace, Maxine

Anonymous said...

Wow caught by cam, Kaus looks just like Gilbert Gottfried if Gottfried had taken an ugly pill.

Eli Blake said...

My problem is with his being willing to be hired.

The appeal of blogging is in our independence. For example, even though I am an outspoken Democrat, I can and do sometimes criticize the Democratic party on my blog. And when I praise Democrats (much more frequently) it is not because I'm being paid, but because it's something I believe.

If you accept money from someone to write good things about them (whether you believe it or not), aren't you a prostitute with a keyboard?

Sissy Willis said...

Have blog will travel?

Adam said...

Eli, people are allowed to be paid for their work, and it's better that he be on staff and official than an independent contractor whose relationship is not being fully and immediately disclosed.