An interesting article over at CBS News about John McCain. David Miller writes that John McCain realizes that he is not exactly popular among conservative bloggers. That is why “two of McCain’s top aides, Terry Nelson and John Weaver, hosted a conference call Tuesday with some leading Republican-friendly bloggers.”
McCain campaign spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said the blogging community is important to the campaign for their role in both digging up news and being a primary resource for many politically engaged people who shun mainstream media.
“With the Internet, blogs and YouTube, people can get news whenever they want and bloggers have gone to the forefront in transmitting news to people,” he said.
The conference call bore little resemblance to one between a campaign and traditional journalists. Many of the bloggers showed minimal restraint in telling Nelson and Weaver where they parted ways with the early GOP front-runner.
McLaughlin said the campaign went into the conference call with no illusions of persuading bloggers to support their candidate. “I don’t think it was as much to smooth things over as to open up a dialogue,” he said. “I don’t think we can necessarily say what our expectations are.”
Paul Mirengoff (PowerLine) and Ed Morrissey (Captain’s Quarters) were two of the participants. Ed responded to the article at CBS News at his own blog. He writes – about what McCain’s staff expected:
They wanted to sound out the bloggers to get an idea whether we would keep an open mind about McCain, and whether they could expect a fair shake from us. None of what they did attempted to change our minds about our issues with the Senator; instead, they asked us for our advice on how they could engage with our readers.
About the influence of topbloggers Ed writes (I agree with him):
My belief is that we act as opinion leaders, to some extent, by engaging with readers who take time to inform themselves on politics and current events. That represents a small percentage of the overall population — between 8-12%, depending on the study and the year. Most will vote in elections, maybe comprising 15-20% of all voters, still a minority but definitely influential. However, the most influence we have will be indirect. People who feel the civic impulse to vote but don’t find politics interesting will search out knowledgeable sources among family and friends, and the blog readers are natural resources for the undecided.
Is it not true that more often than not the vocal minority gets what it wants?
I always thought very positive about McCain, but that is slowly starting to change, mostly due to his view on Iraq.
