Shortly after Governor Sarah Palin joined the Republican ticket, a pink-themed social networking Web site called “Team Sarah” appeared, proclaiming itself a “diverse coalition of women dedicated to advancing Sarah Palin’s vice presidential candidacy. Men welcome too!” A disclaimer at the bottom of the page alerts readers that it is paid for by the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund Project. This pro-life political action committee has reported spending $193,000 to support McCain. The group’s support was never mentioned when New Hampshire newspapers and television stations reported on a Team Sarah press conference, and Fox & Friends interviewed the group’s spokesperson, Jeri Thompson, wife of Senator Fred Thompson.
To be sure, some pro-Obama bloggers see themselves as willing conveyor belts for their candidate’s message. But these blogs tend to be focused on activism instead of punditry. Meanwhile, many high profile pro-Obama bloggers, such as Adam Bonin, a former law student of Obama’s who posts at DailyKos, told CJR that, for a long time, “the Obama campaign wasn’t doing any outreach to bloggers who wanted to get information out to the public. Their focus seemed to be on developing their own My Barack Obama platform and ensuring access through that community.”
Unlike McCain, who had to rally his base, Bonin claimed that the Obama campaign was not interested in reaching out to bloggers like himself because he didn’t want to be the “liberal” candidate. “It wasn’t a courtship that seemed to be a priority for the campaign,” said Bonin. “They just kind of said this is who we are, this is what the campaign believes, and if you like that, join us.”
Renee,
As someone who is quoted extensively in your article I wanted to comment and more importantly make a few points more clearly.
You make the comment that "John McCain’s campaign takes a top-down approach, using blogs—many of which it helped incubate—as an echo chamber for channeling mostly anti-Obama attacks into the mainstream media, in order to create an impression of grassroots online support."
If the McCain Campaign helped incubate any blogs, it did not do so through anyone involved with McCainVictory08.com. Your implication that the McCain campaign did anything to create an "impression" of no line support, at least through us is patently false.
As we discussed one of the issues I had with the campaign was that it wasn't doing enough to foster political networking on line. That is why we created the 50 State Google Groups, State Facebook groups, McCainNow.com and LetsGetThisRight.com and we did it months before the campaign.
As for Mr. Kelly's comment that “If these were typical political bloggers, we would expect to see them better woven into the fabric of the network.” it is important to remember that, as I mentioned in our conversation, I started the McCainVictory08 blogroll before the primary season had begun when virtually all you could find in the conservative blogosphere were pro-Romney and pro-Fred Thompson blogs, many of which were set up by operatives of their respective campaigns.
As for the longstanding political blogs, virtually all were strongly anti-McCain and even those that have subsequently jumped on the band wagon are filled with commenters who continue to attack Senator McCain.
As for our "seeding" 125 pro-McCain blogs, I am not sure where you got that number. It certainly didn't come from us and directly contradicts the statements by Michael Schuyler, our blog outreach coordinator on the number that we helped start which was less than a handful.
I also do not work closely with the McCain campaign. I have not received contact from anyone involved with the campaign (aside from Meaghan) in months regarding blogging. In fact, it caused some degree of anger among many of our bloggers when the McCain e-campaign relaunched JohnMcCain.com and added a "spread the word" function under the Blog tab and did not include a single one of our blogs. I don't have any more contact with the McCain Campaign than any volunteer who signs up at the campaign website. In fact, I get more e-mails from the Obama campaign.
I do not control the content of any blogs involved with the McCainVictory08.com blogroll other than the 3 that I author. As I mentioned to you the goal of McCainVictory08.com was to be a clearinghouse for online support and volunteering for John McCain and if one does a Google search on virtually any aspect of volunteering for McCain it will return McCainVictory08.com as on of the top search results. 90% of visitors to McCainVictory08.com are from such searches and not other blogs in our network.
I couldn't care less if our blogs attract attention of established bloggers. That's not who I write for. As I mentioned to you, I only started blogging in April of 2007 and now have an e-mail list in the thousands. We also have thousands of members in our various pro-McCain Facebook, MySpace and Google Groups which we are able to contact constantly.
With all due respect to Mr. Kelly I would say we communicate rather well.
Posted by Brad Marston on Mon 3 Nov 2008 at 07:01 PM
"In contrast, John McCain’s campaign takes a top-down approach, using blogs—many of which it helped incubate—as an echo chamber for channeling mostly anti-Obama attacks into the mainstream media, in order to create an impression of grassroots online support. "
??? LOL!
The McCain campaign had nothing to do with the blogs that were established in support of his candidacy - if anything, we WISH they had!
“If these were typical political bloggers, we would expect to see them better woven into the fabric of the network."
That's true, many of them weren't "typical political bloggers," although some of us were and still are. Most were just blog readers who hadn't had their own blog before. Doesn't everyone start somewhere? They certainly weren't connected with the campaign - they're just grassroots supporters. That is FACT.
As one of the bloggers in the network (for lack of a better word), I assure you there wasn't an "echo chamber" -- far from it, as at least I had no reason to visit the other blogs most of the time. I was busy doing my own blogging. Furthermore, the real echo chamber would be my.barackobama.com, considering NO dissenting opinions were allowed. It has always been very much the opposite on all of the pro-McCain blogs - and even on John McCain's official blog, as well. Throughout the campaign, every pro-McCain blog (AND the official one) were trolled constantly by nasty, foul-mouthed Obama supporters who used our bandwidth to trash our candidate. That doesn't sound like much of an echo chamber to me, but I guess if you've decided to continue trashing the McCain campaign and supporters, you'll just make stuff up.
Maybe that "echo chamber" idea is you projecting?
You really ought to do your research before writing this sort of thing. I realize it's your wish to glorify the Obamessiah, but really, honesty does him more good than this silliness.
Posted by Beth on Sun 9 Nov 2008 at 05:13 AM
Brad and Beth, let me take this author's bandwidth to officially thank you both for all the volunteer work you did to help us talk and engage all across the country about Senator McCain. I am a local niche blogger in NW Indiana, and frankly the last 18 months have been a huge learning experience.
I am now connected to four or five major multi-author blog platforms, contrary to the opinions of the writer of this article. I can personally attest that the McCain campaign was not involved with our network, I was one who complained quite loudly to all who would listen that the McCain campaign was behind the times and should have directly connected with us in early 2008.
I have a blogger friend who was very strong for Huckabee in 2007, their network of bloggers was much tighter with the actual campaign. They are still all working together to try and get their guy on the ballot in 2012.
The network of bloggers you connected was organic and natural, with little or no organization besides the ability to connect and give advice. The writer of this article had to work pretty hard to attack McCain for a blog network, while totally disregarding your quotes and the truth.
Thanks again for your hard work, time online, advice, nuggets of truth and research, and your patience in dealing with our wide and disparate group of volunteer bloggers all over the country.
Posted by Steve Dalton on Sun 9 Nov 2008 at 07:26 AM
I just love it when people try to claim that any pro-McCain blog is an arm of the McCain campaign.Nothing could be further from the truth, but it looks good in the left-think blogosphere and for writers like yourself. In your mind the Obamiacs are never connected and don't give "talking points", but it is somehow different for anyone supporting McCain or the GOP. This is the same group think that had Obama spokespeople attacking that Journalist who asked Biden about Marxism. They were Republican so they MUST be a part of the McCain campaign and getting talking points. This is garbage. I'm an Independent and Brad has been doing what he is doing because he believes in the causes the GOP promote, like I do. If that makes him an arm of the McCain campaign, then any Obama sites must be an arm of the DNC as well.
It's always a double standard with people like yourself. The same with talk radio. The Conservative radio hosts take liberal callers. When I tried to call Air America, the call takers were sarcastic, try to argue with me, then they would hang up on me. They never even want to listen to an opposing view and don't even give a person who disagrees with them a chance to be heard on the air. In the left and the DNCs minds, it is Right talk radio that is unbalanced and abusive. Sorry, I heard Randi Rhodes, that was abusive, mean spirited and obnoxious. Sounds like the majority of the "news" programs and opinion shows like Keith Olbermann and Chris (I felt a thrill go up my leg) Matthews.
I'm sure you believe in your little theory and your graph, but that is because you have the same mentality as any other left thinker and can't see the truth. The truth is subjective for the left. It is what they want it to be and has no basis in reality.
Posted by Jan Gregory on Sun 9 Nov 2008 at 07:38 AM
Ms. Feltz,
It's important to give a fair and accurate portrayal to all interviewees, not only ones whose side you agree with. Being familiar with Brad Marston's original statements vs. the way they were presented, I believe that you did not represent him well. I hope this will change in future interviews.
Posted by Yomin Postelnik on Sun 9 Nov 2008 at 12:20 PM
As a pro-McCain blogger, former analytical researcher, and stay at home Mom of 2, there are numerous problems with this "analysis" (and I use the term very loosely.)
If you had bothered to look at any of the content in any of the pro-McCain blogs coordinated masterfully by Brad Marston and team, you'd see that we were often the first to call out and criticize the campaign for their missteps or omissions, or create projects to work around their, er, shortcomings. If we were all secretly 'astroturfing' for the campaign this wouldn't have happened as often as it did.
As founder of the Moms4McCain blog, I am - legitimately - a rookie housewife who got mad enough at the negativity and lies from Obama supporters that I borrowed 'Blogging for Dummies' from the library and eventually found BRad's group for technical and moral support. Of the numerous reporters I've spoken to this election cycle, virtually all assumed I was some sort of campaign 'plant.' Until, of course, a local paper sent a photographer to my house, a guy who grew up in the same part of the country, had kids the same age, and saw firsthand that I do, in fact, blog in my living room without benefit of a GOP-issued earpiece. Even then, it was mentioned as a novelty that McCain would - gasp - have any web support at all.
It's also interesting that this 'analysis' fails to acknowledge the coordinated hit campaigns of anti-McCain presence; the purposeful attacks via Blogger to shut down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of PRO-McCain blogs simultaneously.
It's sad that even after the campaign is over, the journalistic community is still determined to discredit the hard work and beliefs of 49% of Americans.
Posted by Jean Avery on Sun 9 Nov 2008 at 12:50 PM
this isnt surprising considering republicans/conservatives tend to be authoritarian in their outlook and values. john dean wrote a book about this a few years ago. they are comfortable with dear leader making decisions for them and not questioning it.
Posted by james turkin on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 01:13 AM
Thank you, Steve, Yomin, Beth, Jean and Jan. Thank you for adding more insight as outside bloggers who were aware of what I was trying to do, who voluntarily got involved because you found it effective. I always took it as a huge compliment to our collective efforts as the blogroll continued to grow.
Now to James...I would say that Barack is much closer to "Dear Leader" than anyone involved in this conversation.
It is liberals who want to tell us where we can send our children to school and what they must be taught and NOT taught. It is liberals who want to tell us where we can smoke, what we can eat, how fast we can drive, how much we can keep of what we earn. It is liberals who want to determine who should own a home regardless of whether or not they can afford it. It is liberals who are against the death penalty for murderers but for the death penalty for un-born children and in the case of Barack Obama for the death penalty for BORN children.
For the millions of mindless Obama supporters who chanted "Yes We Can", following their Dear Leader without question, I have one question..."Yes We Can What?"
Posted by Brad Marston on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 02:37 AM
Ms.Feltz
As for McCain Campaign using a top-down approach via blogs is absolutely out landish and you are giving his staff way more credit than they deserve and giving us bloggers way less. They had no idea that we even existed until way on into Senator McCain's campaign.As a matter of fact we were better off before the campaign knew about us, because when they figured out we were in existence, they could destroy more support than we could create, in other words they were detrimental to our efforts because once they knew we were in existence, they then started attempting to create their own political blogs with disasterous results. They were the Barney Fifes of the blogosphere and if they weren't shooting themselves in the foot they were shooting us in the foot.
When the video surfaced showing Senator McCain talking about keeping the troops in Iraq for 100 years, we attempted to warn the campaign of it's existence and the detriment that it was going to cause and we were shushed and told that it was nothing to worry about and you know what the end result was. As Brad stated their was only Romney and Thompson bloggers around when Brad Marston and Sheridan Folger started this on-line support for Mac purely on their own out of exasperation from watching the pitiful job that Mac's staff was doing (and by the way continued to do throughout his entire campaign) and it grew into what turned out to be an amazing support system for Senator McCain, whether you want to recognize it as such or not. Which we are not here commenting on your "story" for approval to begin with, but if you are going to write a story at least get your facts straight.
Senator McCain's campaign was all but dead and we (the bloggers) revived it(whether anyone wants to recognize it as such or not) with his New Hampshire win and as you know put him back into the running which led to his nomination by the Republican Party. So you see if we had been directly a part of Senator McCain's campaign there would have been a completely different outcome on November the 4th 2008.
We were never associated with the McCain campaign directly or indirectly that I was or am aware of. I would also like to state for the record if anyone received pay I got short changed because I worked on this volunteer on-line leg of this campaign for 20+ months and I have yet to receive any pay. So guys if you read this and I was just over-looked...give me a call. Look there was no pay, there was no campaign coercion,there was no inside support, there was nothing except a bunch of people who was sick and tired of being sick and tired and wanted a president who actually cared about the people of America, that really wanted to change the direction of this country and to keep America safe. I know that takes all of the meat out of your story but that is the truth.
To say that those "so-called joining" our efforts "were antagonistic" toward Mac because their "first presidential choice" was no longer in the running is putting it nicely and believe me they never came into our group (if you can call it that) quietly. They had their own opinions as did we and that more times than not turned into all out war and then agreeing to disagree for one common cause...the betterment of our nation.
Your "so called seeding"(whatever in the hell that even means)125 pro McCain blogs by my recollection were 8 maybe 10 blogs at the most and they grew into whatever they became over time. There was no seeding or planting or whatever else you are trying to insinuate by Senator McCain's staff or otherwise. As I stated early Brad and Sheridan created this all on their own and they should be the only ones getting credit, as for the campaign staff, they were "more harm, than good" and could destroy more McCain support than we could ever create. That is why we were happy that they were not involved in our activities as bloggers or otherwise. We could see how destructive they were in their own area of "so-called expertise" and knew we wanted them nowhere around our projects in any shape or form. So for you to blatantly attempt to link us directly with Senator McCain's campaign is absolutely an untruth on your part, so unless this is a work of fiction, you need to get your facts straight and stop misconstruing or putting your own spin on things to make it more interesting because it is what it is.
As for TEAMSARAH and these other Palin supporters,Mainly PUMA's and Just Say No Deal members who are over there on that site blaming the Republican party for Senator McCain's losing this election via the Republicans not showing up at the polls to vote which is the story that they are spreading, that simply is not true. I do however believe that those millions of so called PUMA's and Hillary supporters is one of those smoke and mirror illusions that is more mouth than might in my opinion. I heard alot of mouth during the entire election and saw very little might and I feel I am being generous to a fault with that statement.
You will soon be enlightened to the fact that we are here to stay and that we are "our own entity" so to speak and cannot be influenced one way or another. We do however have alot to offer to the Conservative movement that has only begun and will change the political landscape in the very near future.
Sincerely,
Vicki Hampton
Posted by Vicki Hampton on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 02:42 PM
I agree Brad just as you question yes we can what?...I also must question Change to What? We are slowly going to see to what and the transformation has already begun. Rahm Emanuel did such a bang-up job with Freddie Mac Obama seen fit to appoint him the Chief of Staff. Obama "supposedly fired Robert Malley from his campaign because of his ties to Khalidi but Malley has miraculously resurfaced and on Obama's payroll no doubt since they have obtained their objective ....the whitehouse. Obama has sent Malley apparently to cozy up to Egypt and Syria:http://www.new.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=43603381514&h=OhXWK. I knew that this snake had not slithered too far from the nest. If anyone is not familiar with Robert Malley they need to become so.Israel's very existence may very well depend on it.
Posted by Vicki Hampton on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 03:03 PM
I am sorry to keep posting but here is the actual link to the Robery Malley article I just mentioned:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128308
Posted by Vicki Hampton on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 03:07 PM
Thank you to everyone for leaving insightful comments that shed further light on how McCain's campaign failed to use the blogosphere to encourage lateral volunteer participation as it focused instead on top down information dissemination.
My reporting for this story, and use of the word, "incubate," was influenced by my interview with McCain's blogger outreach coordinator, Patrick Hynes, who heads a firm that advises corporations on how to use the blogosphere as part of their public-relations strategies. As president of New Media Strategics, Hynes touts his understanding of "how bloggers receive and process information… what energizes them and, just as important, what turns them off." One of New Media Strategics' trademarked techniques is called "NMS Incubation." The company describes on its website how "incubating new blogs that are friendly to your organization and supportive of your agenda generates a powerful echo chamber. Incubation™ develops some of the most talked about stories on the web."
Early in the campaign Hynes used relationships he developed as the founder of the Ankle Biting Pundits blog to "introduce McCain to conservative bloggers." He invited them to regular conference calls where they could ask the candidate questions through a moderator. Comments from the calls often appeared in blog posts friendly to the candidate. After this, it seems Hynes focused on prominent bloggers such as Erik Erikson at RedState.com, and volunteers on those early calls were left to foster a pro-McCain blog presence.
The McCain Victory 2008 blog outreach coordinator told me "it would be difficult to quantify" how many blogs that formed as a consequence of his outreach and the infrastructure he provided – as well as his service of setting up blogs for people who approached him for help and those he found through forums and meet-up spaces. Perhaps it was misleading to report that the MV08 blogroll "seeded" 125 of the blogs in the green and orange clusters that hover above the organic blogosphere, but it is clear that many of them link only to blogs on this blogroll. Most of them feature the same pro-McCain/anti-Obama topics, articles and videos, with additional original commentary.
Vicki commented here that "Senator McCain's campaign was all but dead and we (the bloggers) revived it." This may be true in the world of pro-McCain bloggers or people who found the blogs through Google. But as other commentators here note, the McCain campaign did not harness the organizing power of these blogs or social networks such as McCain Now and Let's Get This Right. Instead, many bloggers were like Steve, who comments here that "I was one who complained quite loudly to all who would listen that the McCain campaign was behind the times and should have directly connected with us in early 2008."
Note to Vicki: I would like to know why you said the blog network of PUMA "supporters is one of those smoke and mirror illusions that is more mouth than might."
Posted by Renee Feltz on Fri 14 Nov 2008 at 02:42 PM
Renee,
Thanks you so much for coming back and responding to the comments here. I put a link up to the article on my Facebook profile and people came and read the article.
I appreciate that you acknowledged that we probably didn't incubate 125 blogs. Perhaps the MV08 bloggers could have been more effective if they had posted articles on major or "traditional" conservative blogs with links back to their own blogs. It is a strategy we will test as we move towards 2010.
I didn't work for the McCain Campaign in any capacity other than volunteer. You are right that the McCain Campaign did not reach out to us as they should have nor did they utilize political networking to their advantage.
As long as those two points are understood we have no significant disagreement.
While I do not speak for Vicki, regarding PUMA it was always a group I regarded with great caution. My fear was that on election day they would step into the booth and vote not only for Barack but also for their Democratic Congresspeople and Senators.
Given the results I believe my fears were well founded.
Regards,
Brad Marston
Posted by Brad Marston on Sat 15 Nov 2008 at 06:06 AM
Here is a follow-up story I did in January 2008, called Grand Old Social Networkign Party:
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/blogged_down_in_the_past.php
Posted by Renee Feltz on Tue 27 Jan 2009 at 10:50 AM