Matt Ortega

Election Geek made some interesting points about the use of blogs by presidential campaigns and asks if presidential campaign blogs have become a form of glorified public relations.

At the very start of this campaign I really railed against the idea of hiring external bloggers. I get the idea. Speechwriters could write for the candidate blogs just as they write for the stump but I understand we are Web 2.0 and that wouldn’t be good enough. We want something personal! So instead of reading a speechwriter veiled as a candidate we are treated to the writing of interns, guest posters & full-time bloggers who try to tell us the candidates story through their story, which is immensely uninteresting and distancing and just sounds like rampant cheerleading.

Judge for yourself:

Obama | Clinton | Edwards | Dodd | Richardson | Biden | Kucinich | Gravel

To caveat, however, I think this point needs to be made: If you take into account the totality of web operations, I think several campaigns are doing some very interesting things, particularly the Dodd campaign.

(Disclaimer: Matt Browner-Hamlin, a campaign blogger for Dodd, is a former co-author of The Right’s Field.)

(Hat tip: Mike Connery, The Future Majority)