How the internet turned everyone into James Carville
Thanks to the net, we've all got access to poll numbers, fundraising figures and endless political gossip - and we all know exactly what the candidates need to do to win, writes Farhad Manjoo
Tuesday September 28, 2004
The Guardian
In late August and early September, as John Kerry's campaign for president hit one low point after another, bloggers of all stripes took to the web with pointed political advice for the candidate. They told him how he should attack Bush and how he should hone his message. They even wrote sample speeches for the candidate.
On September 13, for instance, Zackpunk, a regular contributor to the political junkie website Daily Kos, wrote in his "diary" - a kind of miniblog within the larger site - that while listening to Al Franken on the radio, two disparate facts about the Bush presidency fused together in his mind. One was the story, first reported by Bob Woodward, that when Bush told his secretary of state, Colin Powell, that he planned to invade Iraq, Powell warned the president that "you'll own it all". The other was Bush's campaign promotion of an "ownership society."
These two facts, Zackpunk said, left a "huge opening for Kerry", with an ideal speech from the senator looking something like this: "Mr. President, Colin Powell told you about this war that 'if you break it, you own it'. And now you're going around talking about an 'ownership society'. Well, Mr President, let me tell you what you own. A million jobs lost. You own that. A thousand soldiers lost. You own that. 1.4 million new people living below the poverty line. You own that. 1.2 million less people covered by health insurance. You own that. A 17% medicare increase. You own that. Health care costs skyrocketing. You own that. The tax burden increasing amongst the middle class. You own that. Mr President, if you want to talk about an ownership society, let's talk about what you own."
The speech was a powerful, specific, fact-filled indictment of Bush. And on Daily Kos, when someone writes something as brilliant as that in a diary, other readers begin noticing, and if it's good enough the post can land on the Kos front page. That's what happened in this case, and Kerry's campaign seemed to notice. In a speech two days later, Kerry said, "At that convention in New York the other week, President Bush talked about his ownership society. Well, Mr President, when it comes to your record, we agree -- you own it." Kerry went on to enumerate Bush's mistakes and label his term the "excuses presidency, never wrong, never responsible, never to blame".
It's possible that the Kerry people came upon their speech independently of Daily Kos, but Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the site's owner, says that he suspects Kerry is listening. "It's not that they're listening to Markos," he says. "They're realizing that there's this huge community out there that has good ideas. There are 400 or 500 diary entries a day. If one in a thousand diary entries has something of value, that's a good idea every couple of days".
etc.
and a related article from The Guardian - Fighting the Right Wing Noise Machine
Thanks to the net, we've all got access to poll numbers, fundraising figures and endless political gossip - and we all know exactly what the candidates need to do to win, writes Farhad Manjoo
Tuesday September 28, 2004
The Guardian
In late August and early September, as John Kerry's campaign for president hit one low point after another, bloggers of all stripes took to the web with pointed political advice for the candidate. They told him how he should attack Bush and how he should hone his message. They even wrote sample speeches for the candidate.
On September 13, for instance, Zackpunk, a regular contributor to the political junkie website Daily Kos, wrote in his "diary" - a kind of miniblog within the larger site - that while listening to Al Franken on the radio, two disparate facts about the Bush presidency fused together in his mind. One was the story, first reported by Bob Woodward, that when Bush told his secretary of state, Colin Powell, that he planned to invade Iraq, Powell warned the president that "you'll own it all". The other was Bush's campaign promotion of an "ownership society."
These two facts, Zackpunk said, left a "huge opening for Kerry", with an ideal speech from the senator looking something like this: "Mr. President, Colin Powell told you about this war that 'if you break it, you own it'. And now you're going around talking about an 'ownership society'. Well, Mr President, let me tell you what you own. A million jobs lost. You own that. A thousand soldiers lost. You own that. 1.4 million new people living below the poverty line. You own that. 1.2 million less people covered by health insurance. You own that. A 17% medicare increase. You own that. Health care costs skyrocketing. You own that. The tax burden increasing amongst the middle class. You own that. Mr President, if you want to talk about an ownership society, let's talk about what you own."
The speech was a powerful, specific, fact-filled indictment of Bush. And on Daily Kos, when someone writes something as brilliant as that in a diary, other readers begin noticing, and if it's good enough the post can land on the Kos front page. That's what happened in this case, and Kerry's campaign seemed to notice. In a speech two days later, Kerry said, "At that convention in New York the other week, President Bush talked about his ownership society. Well, Mr President, when it comes to your record, we agree -- you own it." Kerry went on to enumerate Bush's mistakes and label his term the "excuses presidency, never wrong, never responsible, never to blame".
It's possible that the Kerry people came upon their speech independently of Daily Kos, but Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the site's owner, says that he suspects Kerry is listening. "It's not that they're listening to Markos," he says. "They're realizing that there's this huge community out there that has good ideas. There are 400 or 500 diary entries a day. If one in a thousand diary entries has something of value, that's a good idea every couple of days".
etc.
and a related article from The Guardian - Fighting the Right Wing Noise Machine
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