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Letter to the editor

Bloggers, not pundits, have power now

So says an author who tracks candidates' use of the Internet.

By Jules Wagman, Special to the Times
Published December 9, 2007

Only weeks before the first major test of the 2008 presidential race, there are so many candidates in both major parties a scorecard can hardly list them all. Garrett Graff, author of The First Campaign and Howard Dean's Web master in his unsuccessful 2004 run for the Democratic nomination, says this race will be the first in which bloggers play a major role.

Graff believes the 500 or so Washington-New York-Los Angeles editors, news anchors and reporters who form what he calls the "conventional wisdom" are becoming irrelevant, while ordinary people push their thoughts to the Web as easily as any big shot.

Graff says that among the savvy candidates using the Internet to advantage are Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Both are fund raising online with small donations from many people. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are going after big-bucks donors; but what happens when those are tapped out? There will still be millions more voters for the Huckabees and Obamas to solicit, Graff points out.

The Internet also helps lagging candidates get name recognition. In Iowa, Clinton and Giuliani already have wide recognition and can add few new supporters, while lesser-known candidates add followers who hardly knew they existed.

Graff doesn't explain how his grand concentration on the Net failed to put across Dean's candidacy, nor does he explain how the infamous Dean scream on network TV became so well known as to sink his campaign. Another problem he doesn't really tackle is the questionable accuracy of bloggers and amateur pundits.

Graff's new view of the American political game and how it is being played in this presidential election is thought-provoking; it remains to be seen just how on-target he is.

Jules Wagman, last book editor of the old Cleveland (Ohio) Press, reviews books in Jacksonville.

The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House

By Garrett M. Graff

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 308 pages, $24

[Last modified December 6, 2007, 15:45:12]