Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

We’re not nuts! Yay!

By

Jon Keller gives us a shout-out. Too bad CBS-4’s page doesn’t work too well with Firefox, which I’m not willing to give up, thankyouverymuch.

Good gravy, with so much talk in the media about blogs and stuff, why blog about anything but blogs and blogging?

Here’s something to lance our swelling egos, and to give Keller & Co. a little caution …

But political reporters are notorious suckers for this kind of novel new underground movement—soccer moms, NASCAR dads, exurban voters. Journalists respond especially gullibly to the arrival of new constituencies with an air of prairie-fire authenticity. Some of these movements, like the Proposition 13 tax revolt in California, turn out to be as transformative as the avatars predict, and more so. But a larger number of them—like the “Rock the Vote” youth registration movement—turn out to be massively overblown, hype phenomena with little lasting impact.

Well hey, if anyone else in the MSM wants to stop by for some bloggy snake oil, we’re sellin’ …

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Comments

    • While I am very happy for the BMG mention, the overall tone was, well, snotty.  Thank you, John, for that careful explaination wof what ‘blog’ means – so anthropological.

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      As for Las Vegas being the FIRST blog convention – there have been dozens.  The Webby Awards are in their 6th year, for instnace.  LAst year, GOP Bloggers held a convention in DC, and met with members of Congress.  No, what was different about Vegas was that it was a Liberals Only event.

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      So – does Kos make it news for Keller?

      • Say it ain’t so. LOL  Sorry that’s like saying chocolate is delicious. 

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        Many Mass bloggers got together last December for a conference/meet-up at the sadly, no longer open Tatnuck Booksellers in Worcester. (control yourself, Andy) 

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        Jeez, I had to go to the google cache to find a linky to the liveblogging. 

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        I guess if we’re in cache territory, it’s time to have another meet-up.

      • Kos makes it news for a lot of people. DailyKos is the biggest political blog, left or right; they raise lots of money for candidates; and it’s a big convention in Vegas — I would imagine the biggest blog convention yet, though I wouldn’t swear to it. So Keller’s not alone.

        • He didn’t say the ‘biggest’ (and I’d give him grief over that, as Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Reynolds hosted 200 bloggers in DC lastyear) – he said the ‘first’.

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          As a new blogger, he should explore the lay of the land a little more before punditizing about it.

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          Think he knows what TTLB is yet?

  2. Rock the Vote has indeed had demonstatable statistical impact on the probability of young people (a) registering, and (b) voting in presidential elections.  As you might expect, it doesn’t do much for Congressional non-presidential, gubinatorial, or town elections, at least not immediately.

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    Still, I suspect it might in the long term.  Some people start as casual voters, and become more involved with voting and political decision making later, once a particular issue captures their hearts, minds, or imaginations.

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    P.S.  He really does look like a weenie with that mustache/glasses combo.

    • Seriously, would love to see it.  Yes, I’m skeptical, but I’d love to be proved wrong on it.

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