Chron: Bloggers spreading 'netroots' in influence

The Houston Chronicle discovered the blogosphere this weekend. And it typical MSM fashion they still don’t completely get it.

Bloggers spreading ‘netroots’ in influence

WASHINGTON – Democrat Howard Dean electrified presidential politics in 2004 with his campaign fundraising on the Internet and his online campaign log. Just two years later, his breakthrough seems almost Paleolithic.

As the political world prepares for this year’s congressional elections and the 2008 presidential race, a cadre of highly influential bloggers — unfiltered commentators who use the Internet to keep their dispatches snappy, fresh and free of charge — have the potential to revolutionize the electoral process.

With the speed of a keystroke, “netroots” are overtaking grass roots as a key energy source in American politics.

“In the presidential primary, it’s all going to be on the blogs, that’s where it’s happening and that is where the early narratives on the election are all going to be laid out,” said Mathew Gross, a political consultant who was Dean’s director of Internet communications. “It’s a small pool of people, but they are very active.”

Depending on your view, blogs either are the scourge of reasoned debate or the unedited voice of the people, keeping watch over politicians, culture and mainstream media. [can’t we be both? -ed]

So the Chron just discovered blogs and has figured out they are important… I wonder why they are running this story now?

Oh I get it…

Markos Moulitsas, author of Daily Kos, a popular liberal blog, published a column on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Washington Post last week that amounted to a blogger manifesto. He excoriated the presumed Democratic front-runner in the 2008 presidential race for failing to learn the lessons of the Dean campaign.

“No longer would D.C. insiders impose their candidates on us without our input; those of us in the netroots could demand a say in our political fortunes,” Moulitsas said. “Today, however, Hillary Clinton seems unable to recognize this new reality. She seems ill-equipped to tap into the Net-energized wing of her party. … She may be the establishment’s choice, but real power in the party has shifted.”

Now I understand why a story that should have been written 2 years ago… The reporter babe wanted to give Kos some ink. Unfortunately, she picks potentially the worst quote from that train-wreck he wrote for the Post. YES the power of the Democratic party has shifted. To the loony side. The rational Democrats need not apply. And Kos takes Hillary to task for not kissing is feet? PLEASE. What is Kos like 0-17 at getting his candidates elected???

Unlike the whole rest of their party, the Clintons actually know how to win elections. And aligning yourself with the kook wing of the party ain’t gonna get you into the Oval Office. Presently the lefty blogospehre is dominated by the kook wing of the party. It’s no wonder Hillary is staying away.

The loudest voices on the Internet at the moment often seem to be from the political left.

The reporter babe also needs to look up the definitions of “loudest” and “shrillest.”

The lefty blogs might be the shrillest but the right-wing blogs have been far more effective. Noise and results are two different things. Thankfully nobody on the left has figured that out.