The Washington Times has an interesting article about John McCain’s blog reachout efforts, which have recently include left-leaning and apolitical bloggers.
Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is trying to tap a new audience of potential voters by taking his campaign message straight to liberal and nonpolitical issues-based blogs, which reach millions of readers but don’t often delve into conservative politics.
The strategy was in full swing yesterday when Mr. McCain invited non-conservative bloggers to join his regular blogger conference call, just hours after he delivered a major speech previewing his war strategy and other priorities for a first presidential term.
It already has started a war among liberal bloggers over how to react to Mr. McCain’s overture.
In answering the first question on the call, Mr. McCain said his likely Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, lacks the judgment to be commander in chief, which set him up for a bruising from the readers at TalkingPointsMemo.com, a liberal-leaning site that joined in the call.
Blogger Greg Sargent said it amounted to “what may be [Mr. McCain’s] most direct attack yet on Barack Obama’s national security credentials.” But commenters were split: Some took aim at Mr. McCain, some said they were thankful for the intelligence on “what the enemy is planning,” and others lashed out at Mr. Sargent, saying he should have been harsher in evaluating Mr. McCain’s attack.
“This IS a Democratic blog, and as such, it would seem to me that there SHOULD be SOME bias with regards to how YOU report of McCain’s craziness, as opposed to treating his ranting and attacks with a sort of dignity they and he DO NOT deserve,” wrote one emphasis-abundant reader.
Ahh, there’s some of that liberal “tolerance” on display. While in many ways this broader blog reachout strategy is good, there are clearly many bloggers on the left who have no interest in actual dialogue. They don’t want to debate issues, they want to be agreed with.
The question I have is, would Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton ever attempt to reachout to conservative bloggers? While both claim they can unite the country and both parties, their campaign rhetoric and actions have proven the opposite. I don’t see either of them attempting to deliver their message to conservative bloggers and field questions. They were too afraid to debate on a Fox News debate, so I’m sure they are equally, if not more afraid of conservative bloggers who will actually challenge them on issues and ask hard questions.
Blogs For Victory 