Left Blogs Credited From Unlikely Sources

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Blog Related
Posted on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 02:02:29 PM EST
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Dean Barnett says:

And Kos is different?
Yes. Although he rips Democrats when he’s of a mind to do so, he also brings something else to the party. He brings volunteers and money and buzz. Although my modem might well explode as I type these words, Jon Tester would not be a senator starting in January if it weren’t for the Daily Kos. Same for Jim Webb. He never would have made it out of the primary.

4) Okay. So we should be more like Kos?
Not me. I have no interest in being a tool for the Republican Party, or at least not anymore so than I already am. But, and again my modem might explode, there is no denying that the Daily Kos is an asset to the Democratic Party in terms of winning elections. Or at least it was this past cycle.

See also James Joyner and Ed Morrisey, and George Allen's blog man Jon Henke.

h/t Conn Carroll.

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Left Blogs Credited From Unlikely Sources | 17 comments (17 topical)

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Four short years (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Repack Rider on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 02:55:13 PM EST

DKos is only four years old, but until now we have had to hear regularly from the right-wing trolls that DKos is all noise and no results.

I guess they can STFU from now on.

Yearly Kos is going to turn into something the right wing can only wish for, because they are incapable of holding any similar event.

How did the right-wing netroots do this year in the election? </snark>

huh? (none / 0) (#2)
by cpinva on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 04:20:58 PM EST

never heard of the guy, until recently. i seriously doubt most of the folks in va, who also voted for jim webb, have either.

sen.-elect webb is a fairly well known author, and member of the former reagan administration, naval academy graduate, etc. this was way long before Kos was out of diapers.

that allen managed to self-destruct certainly didn't hurt webb's campaign, but he had name recognition not normally enjoyed by a newbie challenger.

tester may have benefited, but webb would've have won, whether Kos existed or not.

don't delude yourselves into thinking you hold more sway with the electorate than you do, which isn't all that much, yet. perhaps, in 2008 or 2010, you might, as more people get more data from the net.

Disagree (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Repack Rider on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 04:53:59 PM EST

Both Webb and Tester as well as McNerney, who defeated 7-term incumbent Richard Pombo, would not have been elected without net support.

Tester and Webb were close victories, and certainly the net put them over the top. Without DKos the Senate is still GOP.

The netroots are only in their infancy, and I think you will see Yearly Kos turning into a required event for anyone seeking a Democratic vote.


xx (none / 0) (#10)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 09:17:16 PM EST

They think they are so therefoe they are??


WTFWJD? (none / 0) (#11)
by Repack Rider on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 10:35:21 PM EST

They think they are so therefoe they are??

You posted this as a reply to my post, but obviously you meant to put it somewhere else, since it does not relate to anything I wrote.

The Democrats THINK they control the House, so therefore they do?


: Actually (none / 0) (#15)
by jimakaPPJ on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 08:41:47 AM EST

The netroots are only in their infancy, and I think you will see Yearly Kos turning into a required event for anyone seeking a Democratic vote.
Actually, it was to the above.
My point being, of course, that these folks are just full of self-importance driven by the attention paid to them by a few Demos.
If they are deemed to actually doing something you can expect the establishment to step in and regulate them.

no (none / 0) (#14)
by skippybkroo on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 02:30:34 AM EST

they think they are so therefoe they are??

no.

they think therefore they spell.


: xxx (none / 0) (#16)
by jimakaPPJ on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 08:44:03 AM EST

skippy... Thank you for your assistance. Do you help the teachers grade papers in middle school?
But don't despair. By the time you are a junior you will understand where the play on words came from.

All due respect cpinva (none / 0) (#8)
by aw on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 08:14:40 PM EST

but, it's about the resources that Kos brought. The funds raised, the effort by local volunteers, both in campaigning and GOTV, many of whom were inspired to action by Kos that made the difference. And of course that YouTube video of Allen.


Shock (none / 0) (#4)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 05:54:07 PM EST

BTD wrote:

Not me. I have no interest in being a tool for the Republican Party,

Now that's a real shock.

: Read (none / 0) (#7)
by aw on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 08:08:44 PM EST

it again.

tell you what repack............ (none / 0) (#5)
by cpinva on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 06:57:05 PM EST

try a little test, to see if your theory holds any water: go out on the street, and ask people, at random, if they voted. if they did, ask them if they've ever heard of Kos, or any of the other blogs, and if they had any influence whatever in how they voted.

i could be horribly wrong, but my bet is that 9 out of 10 voters never heard of him, or most of the other blogs either.

don't get me wrong, i'm not saying they had no influence at all, just not the level they would like to think they did.

simply put, the vast majority (90%) of the eligible voters in this country still get their "news & views" the old fashioned way: print, tv or radio. as a result, those retain the greatest influence on how people vote, and their perception of the various candidates.

it will change, in time.

YMMV (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by Repack Rider on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 07:23:58 PM EST

You can do your "man on the street" survey or you can just count the users. DKos reaches on average, about 600,000 unique users every day, more during an election. Many, if not most of these people are politically active and multiply their presence at DKos by encouraging others to vote. That is not chump change when it comes to votes.

Most of the politically aware people I know are familiar with DKos, far more than enough to swing a close election, as they did with Tester and Webb.

Without the netroots, Pombo would have been reelected easily, so you chalk that one directly up to the netroots.


That's a different question (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by billder on Mon Nov 20, 2006 at 08:51:33 PM EST

I completely agree with you about the average people on the street. They are not aware of Daily Kos. They are not getting their info from Daily Kos.

But, that's not how they primarily supported the Webb campaign. Daily Kos gave Webb increased national exposure, which led to the most important point of all, actively helping him raise money. That's extra cash to hire staffers, pay for materials, and so on that gave the local campaign staff the edge they needed to get out and reach the average person in the street.

That's where Daily Kos made the difference. Same with Tester in Montana and elsewhere.


Maybe the man on the street is unaware (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by kay on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 12:20:35 AM EST

But blogs like DKos provide a platform for organization, not just for media exposure and raising money, but also for GOTV and other grassroots political organization.


: True (none / 0) (#13)
by billder on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 01:41:48 AM EST

Absolutely true.

This got left out (none / 0) (#17)
by Ed Fitzgerald on Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 07:52:48 PM EST

You left out the best part of the Barnett post:

4) Okay. So we should be more like Kos?
Not me. I have no interest in being a tool for the Republican Party, or at least not anymore so than I already am.

The implications here are:

a. Kos and Daily Kos are tools for the Democratic Party -- I'd say that exactly the opposite is the case (or intended to be the case); and

b. That Barnett and other right-wing blogopundits aren't tools for the Republicans, at least intentionally.

Such lack of self-knowlegde is hilarious, such misapprehension of reality is what I've come to expect from such quarters.