Tuesday Editorial: The unprecedented impact of political blogs as progressives eye 2008

In comparison to the 2004 primaries, 2008 will be a whole new ballgame as far as the impact that blogs will have on deciding who will emerge as the Democratic nominee.  Technology is changing, and so is news.  More than ever, a huge chunk of Democratic voters get their news from blogs, such as this one.  So what happens in January of 2008 when there are somewhere between six and ten Democratic presidential candidates running against one another?  The role of the progressive blogosphere could be huge.

In a commentary by Atrios last week, he acknowledged that the progressive blogosphere will be at war with itself during the 2008 primary season.  Most progressive blogs will endorse a candidate, stick to that candidate and slam other progressive blogs that endorse someone else.

Personally speaking, I have yet to decide whether or not I will endorse a candidate on this web site right before the Iowa Caucuses.  I also have not determined whether to endorse a candidate at all.  Will having a favorite Democrat prevent me from being an impartial blogger?  Or, on the other hand, is it unnatural for bloggers like myself to abstain from a personal opinion?  I give my own take on politics each day -- so why stop in January of 2008?  Regardless of what I decide, I can guarantee that I will give it a lot of thought.

Generally speaking, this is very significant.  The fact that I am even writing about how bloggers might need to exercise journalistic responsibility says a lot about what kind of news era we are in.  This is unprecedented!  In 2004, Howard Dean helped prove that it was possible to develop a winning campaign online.  Today, we can be certain that the 2008 primary contest will be won or lost online.

Some might not like the idea of this new political revolution.  But think about what this means as far as encouraging young people to get involved in our political process and public service.  Take the recent immigration debate, for example.  Today, Ari Melber of The Nation Magazine wrote about how the MySpace generation helped organize one of the largest nationwide marches in the history of this country:

Conventional campaigns, even on the left, are targeted at people whoalready exert influence in the political process, namely activists,voters and donors. But the immigration protest was the rare effortthat welcomed the apolitical, who do not usually vote, and those whocannot vote. The rallies and marches drew nonvoters, students andillegal immigrants into their inchoate coalition. And some of thepolitical novices were proficient in organizing technology, even ifthey did not think about it that way.

Keeping all this in mind, think about how this will encourage apolitical individuals to get involved in the political process.  This is such a great moment for democracy -- that the netroots can connect people from all over the country, even all over the world, to promote a populist-driven political vision.

When it comes to 2008, especially the November election, the internet is the Democrats' solution as far as finding new voters.  If we win the netroots, we will have a Democrat in the White House.  Although I respectfully consider James Carville and Paul Begala to be among the greatest political strategists to ever have walked the earth, their time to shine has just about expired.  In 2008, the big blogs -- like Kos, Atrios, FireDogLake, Crooks and Liars, Raw Story and Democratic Underground -- each have a better ability to court new voters than Carville or Begala.  Smaller blogs like this one (even though I hope that it does not stay small for too long), have a more reduced impact.

The point is that the American political landscape is changing.  Blogs impact the political scene a lot more than Washington insiders give them credit.  And unless we take advantage of this revolution, progressive groups on Capitol Hill and those seeking office will lose out on a great opportunity.