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| Wednesday, August 13, 2003 |
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Sappy trails 
| | In a lame attempt to be hip, pols are posting soggy, foggy, bloggy musings on the Internet. Inspired by Howard Dean's success in fund-raising and mobilizing on the Web, candidates are crowding into the blogosphere — spewing out canned meanderings in a genre invented by unstructured exhibitionists. |
| | It could be amusing if the pols posted unblushing, unedited diaries of what they were really thinking, as real bloggers do. John Kerry would mutter about that hot-dog Dean stealing his New England base, and Dr. Dean would growl about that wimp Kerry aping all his Internet gimmicks. But no such luck. |
| | Instead, we have Travels with Tom, Tom Daschle's new blog recounting his annual August pilgrimage around South Dakota. Trying to sound uninhibited, he says he has "no schedule and no staff" and promises readers "amazing experiences" with "fascinating people." |
| | Not a deep piece, but not a bad one, either. |
| | If Kerry, Daschle and Graham hadn't firmly planted the stake in the ground and called their new "sites" blogs would Dowd had an editorial today? |
| | There's too much pissing and moaning about good blogs and bad blogs. And worrying about some poor bastard's little site that could infect the blogging world and bastardize the whole state of blogging. Phooey. Relax. |
| | Maybe it's time we just move away from the word "blog". Been so damn hard to explain to the unaware for the last couple years anyway. Then maybe we see some better reporting. Better analysis. And better writing. Gee. Then things just might get better. |
| | But do politicians have what it takes to succeed in the cutthroat world of blogging? Not likely. The best political bloggers--Mickey Kaus (Kausfiles.com), Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit.com) and Andrew Sullivan (AndrewSullivan.com)--all have a contrarian outlook and irreverent humor. Best of the Web Today, my own bloglike daily column on OpinionJournal.com, is filled with snarky references to such favorite targets as Our Friends the Saudis, former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, and Sen. John Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam. |
| | Blogging, in short, thrives on sarcasm. Politics doesn't. So it's hardly surprising that Dr. Dean's blog is earnest to the point of sanctimony, all we-can-make-a-difference and let's-build-a-better-America. Last week it featured one Erica Derr of Greensboro, N.C., who was so appalled to get a tax rebate that she donated it to the Dean campaign. "I could have spent this money on material things," she wrote. "What would those things mean 15 or 20 years from now when my daughter is paying for the debt we accrued?" |
| | Stop, mom, this is embarrassing! |
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