I am enthusiastic about Obama's run, but he shouldn't let people post their own blogs on his site.

[LoZoccolo]

I can see it now: despite dozens of positive insights posted by ordinary people everywhere, someone posts something abrasive and acerbic about Southerners or something, someone obsessed wingnut gives it to Drudge, and the next thing you know it's "offensive rant about rural Americans appears on Obama's web site".

Please Mr. Senator, get rid of that whole thing! Look what happened when Dean allowed anyone in America, sincere or not, to co-opt his campaign! Look no further than DU if you'd like to know what happens when people can say a bunch of weird things without accountability.

[sandnsea]

1. They'll learn

It's a sad thing, but they'll figure out they either have to engage volunteers to moderate the blogs or take them down. The Kerry campaign had personal blogs at one point and took them down. It was more because they got freeped than anything actual supporters said though. Live and learn I guess.

Although, Edwards is the one at risk of blowing his campaign with too much grassroots Dean type influence.

[fujiyama]

5. I don't think the problem is grass-roots per se

It's often that niche special interest groups come to define the candidate before the candidate can define him/her self. At least that's the way I see what happened to Dean's campaign.

Grass-roots is great - but it has to be local and genuine. Hell, it's the one thing Kerry got right in IA during the primaries and the reason he was able to beat Dean. I remember seeing one of Dean's rallies and you had some far left folks with signs asking whether Osama was responsible for 9/11. It was really strange and it reminded me of the way ANSWER hijacks anti-war protests.

[sandnsea]

7. Oh absolutely, depends on the grassroots

I was referring to allowing the campaign to be defined by particular groups that aren't reflective of either the grassroots OR the Dem base as a whole. Even Lamont suffered from that I think. He didn't define himself in areas beyond anti-war, regardless of whether he tried to or not. It just didn't happen. I see Edwards ending up in that hole, at this particular point at least. I'm really surprised he's trying to run a blogosphere campaign. I don't see Obama making that mistake, he seems to know how to reach out to all groups without getting taken hostage by any of them.

[Imagevision]

2. Bloggers need to be monitored to prevent the wrong messages to be posted without rebuttal

[illinoisprogressive]

3. like you I am enthusiastic about Obama's run. I was not here in 04 for Dean

so I don't know what happened to his site.

[Eurobabe]

4. Oh it happened on Clark04 too

there were open threads and personal blogs and the freeps just went wild on them.

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. True, but the Clark community got better at dealing with it, and continues

Wes Clark never took down the blogging area of his web site. Clark Community Network has continued non stop since 2003. His PAC made a real and ongoing committment to blogging. There have been software changes since 2003, and the archives got wiped with one major change of platforms, but the blogging has been uninterrupted. I've had a personal blog at CCN for years.

In fact Clark supporters, with the approval of WesPAC staff, organized their own specialized writing teams to produce ongoing serial blogs in major topic areas, and WesPAC provided feature space for them. Currently there are 8 of them running: 55&Better, Economy CSI, Faith in Action, Generation Whatever, International Affairs, Real Science, Then&Now, and Troops&Vets.

Since Dean and Clark ran in 2004, there has not been a more netroots friendly (potential) candidate hosted web site than Clark Community Network, and it is working. The quality of discussion is excellent with new supporter generated content going up all of the time. Participatory Democracy can be sloppy at times, but it also brings great rewards that are lost when a top down campaign attempts to overly sterilize it's web site.

Here is the direct link to Clark Community Network. I think those unfamiliar with it will be positively surprised by the discussions, and exchange of information, being generated there:

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/

[fujiyama]

6. Hopefully they'll be carefully moderated and screened

I think the websites are effective in getting information out to volunteers (current and prospective), as well as a calender of events, speeches, media, and of course fundraising.

But, I can see a lot of potential for abuse when you open it up to message board/blogs. Even the blogs aren't necessarily a problem, depending om who is blogging...but I find them as somewhat unnecessary if it's not someone very closely affiliated with the campaign - who is trusted enough not to make a fool of the senator.

[Vinca]

8. Actually, as a somewhat technically-challenged supporter,

I found his web site confusing. I'm sure that's more my fault than the Obama campaign's, but candidates should be aware that not everybody is "user friendly."