Q&A Friday #53: Do The Democrats Pay More Attention To The Blogosphere Than The Republicans?

Question: It would seem that the Left listens to their bloggers closer than the Right does. (See also Ned Lamont.) Do you agree, or is this merely perception? — Lou Moran

Answer: I do agree that the left pays more attention to its bloggers, although that’s changing a bit.

As far as I could tell, the GOP paid almost no attention whatsoever to the blogosphere before the 2004 election. Then, about the time Bush put up Harriet Miers and the blogosphere was just savaging him for that, the GOP started trying to really engage the blogosphere. Since then, we get bazillions of press releases, the occasional teleconference, and last I heard, the RNC had a daily report going around discussing what was going on in the blogosphere.

Still, the left side of the blogosphere has more influence with the Democratic Party, which I would argue is to the Democratic Party’s disadvantage.

To tell you the truth, I think it would be a mistake for the GOP to pay as much attention to the right side of the blogosphere as the Democrats pay to the left side, in part, because the right side of the blogosphere is significantly less socially conservative and more libertarian than the base is as a whole.

On the other hand, if the Republicans in Washington started paying more attention to the blogosphere, conservative columnists and mags, and conservative talk radio, I think that would be helpful because as the elections proved, as a group, we’re a lot more in tune with what the conservative base thinks than most of the Republicans in Washington.

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