"Hillary and the Netroots"

By: Lowell
Published On: 4/27/2007 3:51:30 PM

My former Webb for Senate colleague, Jeff Pyatt, is now working for Real Clear Politics.  Today, Jeff has written an article entitled, "Hillary and the Netroots," in response to Clinton's "live blog" appearance on FireDogLake this Tuesday - one of the first times she has ever appeared on the blogs.  According to Jeff:

Clinton is perhaps realizing the error of her previous ways. To this point in her campaign she has largely ignored the progressive netroots, and as a result has finished poorly in blog polls, consistently garnering only single-digit support and often placing lower than even Dennis Kucinich...

...Traditionally, netroot Democrats -- including Obama, Edwards, Ned Lamont, Jon Tester and my old boss Jim Webb -- have helped grow and maintain their online support by posting diaries at Daily Kos. The logic here is simple. With over 600,000 visitors a day, Daily Kos is by far the most trafficked of any political blog and easiest way for a Democratic candidate to create a worthwhile conversation with progressive activists.

But Clinton has never posted a diary at Daily Kos, which only begs the question: Why would she proactively avoid recreating the success of other recent candidates? And the most likely the answer is, because Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos -- aka "Kos" -- hates her.

It will be interesting to see whether Hillary Clinton continues to engage with the blogs moving forward.  I personally think she could do herself a great deal of good if she does so.

Comments



Peter Daou (Alice Marshall - 4/27/2007 5:15:14 PM)
Clinton hired Peter Daou, creator of the famous Daou report, a year ago.

President Clinton met with a group of bloggers after to thank them for their efforts to stop the airing of The Path to 9/11

Clinton has a determined defender in Bartcop, one of the forunners or blogosphere.

Clinton would be a fool to go to the Orange frat house, where her words are rountinely twisted to mean things she never said. There are too many other places to go in blogosphere. FireDogLake is just one.

Someone should tell Kos that the American poltical landscape is littered with the politican ruins of those who disintegrated into Clinton haters.



The reason why Sen. Clinton has caught so much flack over at Kos (beachmom - 4/27/2007 9:49:17 PM)
is because she only recently advocated withdrawing from Iraq.  She also is a centrist (although her record is still far more liberal than any GOP contender), whereas DailyKos is about bringing progressivism back to the Democratic party.  She often is seen as an equivocator, and her husband's legacy is not helpful in that regard.  I don't agree that DailyKos is an "orange frat house" -- in fact, that is where I read your wonderful posts for the first time.  There are all kinds of voices on DailyKos, and I can guarantee you that it's a lot harder to bash somebody when they're "there". 

A good example is John Kerry.  Kos used to be a Kerry bashfest all the time until he started posting diaries in January '06.  His latest diary (from yesterday) garnered a little over 300 comments, and only a handful were negative.  Of course, part of the reason for that is that Kerry honors bloggers, listens to them, and took a lot of hits last year for standing up for progressive causes like filibustering Alito and introducing his Iraq plan that called for a timetable for withdrawal that garnered only 13 votes (now it has 50).  People noticed that, so you can see he earned it the hard way.

So posting on DailyKos can take away some of that hostility, because it would show she was interested in having a "conversation", something she says she wants to have.  Well, doing it from your own controlled website is one thing -- being willing to engage in an equal discussion with some very smart and resourceful people who WILL tell it like it is, would be a transforming experience for Sen. Clinton.

She should do it. 



Just a clarification... (Detcord - 4/28/2007 9:57:53 AM)
...since I'm probabaly not the only one struggling with the contradiction here:

  "She also is a centrist (although her record is still far more liberal than any GOP contender),..."

Centrist?  Still looking for evidence of that...plenty of support for the latter part of your statement.  Since they're mutually exclusive, both can' be true.



Perhaps she is afraid (Rebecca - 4/27/2007 10:02:33 PM)
Perhaps Hillary is afriad of the blogs. -Just a thought. But I think the real reason she has not given the blogs their due is because she is tied to an old style money machine. That is to say the type of the old school machine where money comes from a relatively small group of very wealthy entities. That constituency is not nearly as progressive as the blogs and the two groups have been at odds over many issues.


I don't like her either (hate is too strong a word) (relawson - 4/27/2007 10:44:34 PM)
But I would be overjoyed if Senator Clinton would blog on RaisingKaine if she won't do KOS.  Who knows, maybe she will change my opinion of her. 

I have just one question for her regarding the economic stability of the middle class which I believe is being threatened by unfair trade and the exploitation of foreign workers by corporations.  I hope she would answer the question.



Tiring of Kos (humanfont - 4/27/2007 10:55:13 PM)
I still read it; but I've found that I spend a lot more time reading Firedoglake, and other blogs such as this one.  Kos is someone who has swallowed his own hype.  I think he wants to be a king/queen maker; but his rather heavyhanded shilling for Edwards is just pushing readers away.