Yesterday's Democratic Speeches

By: Lowell
Published On: 12/1/2007 9:24:19 AM

For speeches by most of the Democratic presidential candidates from the DNC fall meeting in Vienna, Virginia yesterday, see here.  Interestingly, Adam Conner of MyDD writes that "The DNC is doing a great job with bloggers."  Only one problem: not ONE Virginia Democratic blogger was invited to the meetings, despite the fact that they were held in Virginia.  In fairness, the DNC did send out announcements about this event, and also the venue was changed to Virginia on short notice. However, Virginia Democratic bloggers were never specifically contacted and/or invited to the meeting. I spoke with a representative from the DNC yesterday and he was VERY apologetic. I certainly accept the apology, although I continue to wonder why national bloggers received such great treatment compared to Virginia bloggers.  Maybe just an innocent oversight, maybe part of a pattern, or maybe a bit of both?

Comments



I could have walked to this place.... (ericy - 12/1/2007 9:58:40 AM)

Literally.  For the victory party on the evening of Nov 2006, we did just that.

Getting off of work would have been harder though - I seem to have the project that just keeps going on and on.

There were the usual traffic snafus in the morning as I was leaving for work and tons of people were trying to get into the hotel for the morning sessions.



well, I was invited, albeit not by DNC (teacherken - 12/1/2007 11:33:27 AM)
and quite possibly not specifically as a blogger, but I received several invitations from Edwards campaign - I did give him $100 quite some time ago and I am on a regular contact list.

of course, on a Friday morning at 10;30 I am teaching.   So I knew it was a no-go.  

Since Tracy Russo left DNC to work for Edwards they have not been quite so good at reaching out to bloggers.



I don't believe Virginia bloggers (Lowell - 12/1/2007 12:08:14 PM)
received invitations from Presidential campaigns, at least not officially or in any comprehensive manner.  Lame.


I am probably not viewed as Virginia blogger (teacherken - 12/1/2007 12:36:13 PM)
my invitation to meet with Mrs. Edwards on education came about because I was a blogger, not because I was a Virginia blogger.  And I have remained on some contact lists since then.  

But as a Virginia I do blog about Virginia issues, and you are kind enough to let me exercise my judgment about posting to the front page here, so I am to some degree also a Virginia blogger.  And I was invited.  But not by the DNC.  And of course that is the real issue - that the DNC's folks failed to take the additional step of outreach to those bloggers local to the event.

peace.



Exactly, that's the issue. (Lowell - 12/1/2007 12:40:42 PM)
Inviting national bloggers just makes it even more stark that they didn't reach out to the Virginia bloggers.  As I mentioned, someone from the DNC called me yesterday, profusely apologized, and promised to do a lot better in the future.  I sure hope so, given that Virginia is a key state for 2008 and beyond, one with an extremely active netroots, and one that's soon to have a Democratic governor, a Democrats State Senate, and two Democratic U.S. Senators (plus as many Congressional seats as we can take back in 2008 -- hello, Tom Davis, Frank Wolf, Thelma Drake, Virgil Goode and possibly others).